Wednesday 19th August 2015 by James Moore | Photos by Artwork

The 9 greatest pop culture references in music

Film, television and literature references from some of the greats

From Gremlins to Bukowski, have a scroll through our top 9 pop culture references in popular music.

Action Bronson - 'Easy Rider': In the video for one of the standout singles from Mr Wonderful, Bronson heavily references the cult, psychedelic Dennis Hopper movie. Evading the police and zooming around on a Harley Davidson, the Queens rapper concludes an acid fuelled adventure with a guitar solo on a mountain top.

Modest Mouse - Charles Bukowski: Taken from Good News For People Who Love Bad News, frontman Isaac Brock rants about his complicated relationship with the wildly misogynistic author's work. "Yeah I know, he''s a pretty good read. But God, who'd wanna be such an asshole?"

Mogwai: The talented Scottish post rockers took their name from the original Gremlins movie's pre-transformation creatures, being inspired by the presence of the undeniably cute and little hero, Gizmo.

Isaiah Rashad - Breaking Bad: The up and coming TDE rapper dropped sharp references for crystal meth cooking and old school horror movie 'Poltergeist' on 'Soliloquy'. "We just breaking bad / and my brother serving Walter White / hope he ain�t caught with that possession / like a poltergeist."

Wu-Tang-Clan: The iconic hip hop collective took their name from this obscure Kung-Fu movie Shaolin & Wu Tang, and they continued to reference various influential Kung-Fu films throughout their music. They even released a martial arts fighting game on the original Playstation.

Alt J - Leon: The Professional: Inspired by the movie, Alt J's 'Matilda' repeats the iconic line, "This is from Matilda" throughout the track. We'll tread carefully around spoilers for anybody foolish enough not to have seen this Luc Besson masterpiece, but it's the last line in the film, and precedes a dramatic spectacle.

The Ramones - A Clockwork Orange: The legendary band titled one of their tracks 'Durango' after the joyride car in A Clockwork Orange. They also posed in similar outfits to Stanley Kubrick's characters on the cover of their album Too Tough To Die.

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence: Another Clockwork Orange reference. Lana Del Rey named her third studio album after a quote from the iconic piece of literature. Speaking about the gang's milk drinking habits, Alex, the novella's protagonist, explains that it "would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence."

The Wombats - Bridget Jones's Diary: Their track 'Kill The Director' is littered with film and television references throughout. the indie outfit shout, "If this is a rom-com, kill the director" before entering into a "this is no Bridget Jones" frenzy.

Tags: Modest Mouse, The Wombats, The Ramones, Action Bronson Photo: ARTWORK/WENN/ARTWORK

It's always great when world collide, and you learn that one of your favourite artists or bands was inspired by your favourite movie, book or television series.

We've handpicked some of our favourite pop culture references from a number of different musical genres over the years, including nods to television, cinema and literature. Explore some of these musicans' bizarre, obscure and amusing tips of the hat to pieces of work that have clearly struck a chord.

From Breaking Bad lines about "serving Walter White" to a band naming themselves after the furry little creatures from Gremlins, here's our list of the 9 greatest pop culture references in popular music.