Clueless with pop culture

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I know us autistics have “restricted interests” so does that actually include pop culture too?

I myself have lived under a rock most of my life. Trying to improve in attempt to connect more with others, but...

When I try to engage with just about anything mainstream, I just get turned off. Is this common with being on the autism spectrum?

Any tips?

I can't say whether it is common.
What I can say is my set of the effects of autism make TV too flashy and hyperactive & make pop music too full of too many different sounds happening too fast.
Those 2 things seem to be the foundation of pop culture.

Even with those troubles I have occasionally while at a friends house tried to watch a TV show a friend was interested in.

And usually did not get why the show was appealing.

Watching the shows left me feeling like something had eaten my soul and left only an empty void.

I'm not very knowledgeable about celebrities. My brain just doesn't want to store that sort of information. Most NTs brains seem to have space to store that sort of information even if they don't care much for celebrities. But I've often been humiliated before for getting a fact about a popular celebrity wrong. I don't know why NTs make it such a big deal if you don't know something about a popular celebrity. One time I asked an NT why it's such a big deal and she was like, "well, it's general knowledge that everyone but you knows".
Like when I got George Michael and Boy George mixed up (I actually thought it was the same person with a nickname) and my own family were so weirded out because of it. They looked at each other with an odd look, then my dad sighed in despair and my mum gave a little laugh before she corrected me.
(But no badmouthing my parents please).

^^ I heard of someone who thought that Olivia Newton-John was a trio, Olivia, Knute, and John.
I have been trying for years without success to get a definition of Pokemon, and am also baffled by any references to hashtags, likes, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. There are several celebrities who I can't classify between sports and music, through a whole career. I don't get movie or TV references 99% of the time. However, I can tell you that Lois Flagston, of Hi and Lois, is the sister of Beetle Bailey. I can quote Monty Python extensively, and I know about Sharkey, who didn't make it into the end of the movie about Lord of the Rings.

I'm clueless about the popular culture of today, because I'm just not interested in it.

I’m another who essentially does live under a rock (hey, I’m a dragon, I live in a cave, under a lot of rock ) and is basically clueless about pop culture. I have a couple interests that used to be popular but aren’t anymore, and that’s as close as I get.

Inform yourself on what have been the most selling tv shows of all time: https://stacker.com/stories/980/100-bes ... s-all-time

Focus first on the most popular tv series that are currently on air. And mostly focus on the tv series that your friends watch or have mentioned. Start from those.

Do the same with film, go watch movies with your friends, that should give you something to talk about that you too know how to talk about.

Unless an autistic person happens to be interested in something that's currently "in", it's likely that they won't know much about those things. I think that when NTs aren't interested in what's currently "in", they put in extra effort to learn something about it to not look stupid and to be able to do small talk. Or maybe they just hear other people talk about those things, and are more skilled in picking up and storing the pieces of information that are relevant.

...

Actually, it's most likely the later.

It's just a thing of feelings and empathy. People who make music try to express their feelings of life or a special emotional thing this way that other (NT) people can relate to. Music transports emotions. Many autistic people don't realize the emotions of the ones who are making it the same as NTs do or are even unable to generate the same emotions at all and for this they don't get it. NT people may like the emotions it causes to them or dislike but it's more or less a question of personal preferences to them.
Music isn't just noises. Most rock and pop music has a basic rythm that enables to move and swing your body to it for dancing. Dancing is kind of 'stimming' by having fun with moving the whole body to it. It's why NTs are even into it. Dancing causes an amplification of the feelings that the music is related to.
If it comes to me than I like rock music most because I can relate to the power, speed and fun that it provides. Not everybody likes every kind of music of course.

_________________
I am as I am. Life has to be an adventure!

I've had a lot of fun dancing. One great influence was a roommate who had been sent to deepest, darkest Africa, where he saw something that few white men have ever seen. Even when a school has a grass roof and no walls, it produces a talent show for all the parents to watch. The time Dave was there, the act that got the biggest laughs was simply two five year olds doing "White Folks Dancing." At our parties, Dave would dance, and you could tell two things right away. First, it was a lot of fun, and second, you would probably not be the silliest looking person on the floor. Now, I find it is a pleasant substitute for formal exercises.

What the "special interest" is, is irrelevant. That it is atypically repetitive and restricted is

^^ I've heard Rainier Hersch (sp?) refer to himself as "the" German comedian.