This article presents a theoretical consideration of some of the ways in which capitalist realism is shaping the field of higher popular music education. We begin by presenting an overview of our understanding of Fisher's concept and then offer a critical but hopeful consideration of the interconnected areas in which the business ontology that Fisher describes most problematically impacts on higher popular music education. We describe the ways in which this area is largely uncritically informed by a societal sense of capitalist realism which functions to perpetuate and naturalize the market-focused, exploitative practices and behaviors that characterize many areas of higher education, the music industries, and society more widely. We then turn to offer three ways in which we might work as higher popular music educators to help to develop counter-hegemonic approaches in our field by way of cultivating environments for the development of the critical consciousness required in order to foster meaningful change.