I think pop culture references are appropriate depending on who is telling the story and when it is set.
I look at my own life, family, and friends when I am writing. A few years ago when I wrote my first story on GA, I based it on real locations in and around Patchogue, N.Y.. Recently, Patchogue is undergoing a Renaissance of sorts and half the places I described are gone now.
I think pop culture can help set a story in a certain time. Whether you discuss Woodstock, landing on the moon, the disco era, the big hair of the eighties, boy bands of the 90s, the change that the www created in 2000, or how recent changes in media affect everything it puts your story into a time and place. Even trying to leave them out can date a story.
How much or how little you include is up to each writer, but trying to ignore cell phones, media, social apps, or other cues might lead people into taking the story for a different time or alternate earth. I think that is why I prefer fantasy and science fiction.