do popular musicians do that thing homestuck does

somewhere out there is a world where someone can ask "is popular music like homestuck in the sense that xyz" and the answer would be yes. the answer from our world is... probably not

and reference motifs and melodies from other songs constantly

nah. i think that if you're paying attention you can identify where artists pull ideas from others but not in the sense that they're paying homage or calling back to another song but rather theyre identifying what is catchy and sells and integrating those elements into their music. i wouldn't say that nobody ever does it ever but if it has happened you'd never hear it in a single, probably only see in an album, probably as a callback in the very last track. and definitely not, like, as subtly as homestuck musicians might integrate those references. an example might be chan chaka chan chan by kyary pamyu pamyu which is the final track off pamyu pamyu revolution. at 2:33 she integrates the melodies of pon pon pon, candy candy, and tsukematseru briefly

if you think of it in terms of producers/composers, some of them have really particular tics that are recognisable across the musicians they work for. idk if that's exactly what you're looking for, but crj's all that and sky ferreira's everything is embarassing are both very much dev hynes tracks and it's fun to be able to pick up on without checking credits

does tchaikovsky using the french and russian national anthems in the 1812 overture count

i don’t know about pop music but it’s extremely common in jazz

i don't think that stuff like folks quoting each other could happen much in chart-topping types, because soon as you get close as a sniff, shit like this happens.

i don't listen to homestuck music but i think i get a similar feeling of reward when the radio plays a song that gets sampled in hip-hop. like "lmao that's the original wow"