Historical references, mythological references, and references to other FF games are commonplace in Final Fantasy, but a few of the games have snuck in a few pop culture references to movies and music. Here a some of those:

1. FF6 - features two characters Biggs and Wedge who, oddly enough, are soldiers of the Empire. They are based on two Star Wars characters who are fighting AGAINST the Empire. They appeared in every mainline FF game afterward (except FF9).

2. FF7 - features posters in Midgar featuring the name "My Bloody Valentine" with "Loveless" at the bottom; these can be seen in the opening FMV and then a much better look as Cloud and company run through the streets of Midgar after blowing up a reactor. Loveless is the 1991 signature album of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine.

3. FF8 - the motion capture team took moves from the massively popular 1983 music video Thriller.

4. FFX - Seymour went to a temple called Macalania Temple. Tidus thinks this is Macarena Temple. The Macarena was the most annoying song and dance of the 1990s, think Gangnam Style and the Fortnite dance times 86 levels of annoying.

Yes i know the Macarena song, a sin of the past.

Zinedine zidane: very successful French soccer player, won the World Cup with France in 1998, also the name of ff9’s protagonist.
Also I don’t know if this counts as a pop reference but the intro song in ffx features vocals and instrumentation very similar to the German band ramstein, the song du hast being a good reference point.

nobou uetmatsu said that the intro from one winged angel (the tritones) was inspired by the song purple haze from Jimmi Hendrix.