A few years ago I took your approach with music, I'd listen to every new major label hip-hop/rap album on the day of release and guess what? No one I knew could talk about any of the albums in the detail I knew because they listen to whats on the radio or in the club - not saying that its a bad thing, but I think you are over-rating how much people care about "pop culture"
It's an easy way to find common ground for casual conversation. Same goes for sport, mention the latest $popular_sport_match and you're bound to find that at least a few people will have seen it, or heard enough about it to make conversation.
For some sports it's even an international thing. I don't really follow rugby, but when I was recently in Fiji, I spent a fair bit of time talking about rugby and the Lions tour that was on at the time, because it was something that I could talk about with most British and South African people. Obviously, you can't go to another country and talk about the Red Sox, but for international sports, it's a great conversation starter.
Same goes for things TV shows like Game of Thrones, everyone watches GoT.
It's the same with the weather, it's an absolutely banal topic, but it's a common ground, we are all experiencing the weather.
>Same goes for things TV shows like Game of Thrones, everyone watches GoT.
Kinda like only Americans follow baseball?
There's no way you're going to know any reference, just ask, there you go you started a conversation.
If people are not talking to you because you haven't seen star wars I hate to say they are either not worth your time or your breath smells bad!