pop culture and news in the novel...

Is anyone still here? If you are, I've got a questions for ya...

I'm not generally one to feel that popular culture has a place in fiction writing up until now. And I'm struggling with it. My novel is set in 1980 and my protagonist is 13. There was a lot going on in the world during 1980, and it seems that, while trying to give a sense of the times and what it is like for her to exist in her own little bubble amidst a world of violence, I've found that she talks like a teenager and relates things together like a teenager, meaning: she relates things to TV and pop culture. I fear this a little. Sometimes it seems alright, other times I think she doesn't know enough about what is going on in the teenaged cultural world of 1980 to be convincing. Other times I'm just annoyed by the talk of any of it. I try to explain who Mrs. Garrett on "The Facts of Life" is when she refers to her so that it's not just a throw-away reference that only means something to people who know it, but seriously. is this what I'm doing?

She doesn't do it a lot, but I still am bothered by it. I think this came up more during November when I had to write, just to write and started having these long sections about Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen... Now I am just annoyed with the whole prospect of having ANY of these references in the book. I wish they would all go away...

Does anyone have ideas on how best to integrate pop culture into novel to build a sense of the time period? (I've got a pretty good sense on how I'm using the news right now... so that's not the issue... just the frigging pop culture...)

I feel that incorporating popullar culture into a work of fiction, helps in blurring the lines between the story and reality. However, it's easy to get carried away and force the reality onto the reader in a way that suggests you're trying to hard.

The easiest way I can see this being avoided is to lightly reference what interests your character into a dialogue that shows some form of ambivalence to the events that are happening, yet aren't really interesting, to her. That, or, perhaps she can look at a magazine and note that her favorite song had just hit number five, or better yet, was still cilimbing the charts.

Small details are a great way to plant seeds and create the backstory for the reader. Don't go overboard on the reality, instead, reference it enough for your reader, especially the older ones, to discover and relate to.