References to the New York City Subway in popular culture are prevalent, as it is a common element in many New Yorkers' lives.
By service
6
Justin Townes Earle's song "Working for the MTA" describes the 6 train from the perspective of the driver. In the novel The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and the films based on it, a 6 train that originated in Pelham Bay Park Station was hijacked, and hostages were held inside a subway car. After his first visit to NYC in 1969, Rubén Blades wrote the song "El número seis" about waiting for the 6 train. He never recorded it, but it was recorded in 1975 by Bobby Rodríguez y la Compañía in 1975, Los Soneros del Barrio in 1999, and Jimmy Sabater with Son Boricua in 2002. When she was growing up, Jennifer Lopez regularly rode a 6 train into Manhattan to go to her dance studio. Her debut 1999 album is called On the 6, a reference to the train.
A
"Take the A Train" is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn, referring to the A train, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the express tracks in Manhattan. It became the signature tune of Duke Ellington and often opened the shows of Ella Fitzgerald. Part of the significance of this is sociological: it connected the two largest Black neighborhoods in New York City, Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. The A-Train series of Japanese railroad management games is named after this song. The original Japanese title translates to "Take the A Train". "Cinderella & The "A" Train" is a song by Joe Purdy, and is one of several songs by Purdy about (or with references to) New York City.
C
A satirical depiction of the C Eighth Avenue Local appears in a full page "Sketchbook" in The New Yorker by cartoonist Roz Chast, titled "The Legend of the C Train."
D
The opening track on Yoko Ono's 2009 album Between My Head And The Sky is titled "Waiting For The D Train". The D passes through 72nd Street (opposite Yoko's apartment in the Dakota Building) but never stops there, as it is a local station. The 1980s folk-pop trio The Washington Squares includes a song titled "D Train" on their eponymous 1987 debut album. Jean-Michel Basquiat generated much interest in his graffiti art, which took the form of spray-painted aphorisms that were targeted at the D train.
F
Lofi hip hop artist Samsa references the F train running from Brooklyn to Jamaica, Queens in his song "to the girl three seats over on the f train."
J/Z
Rapper Jay Z has acknowledged that his moniker is partially a homage to the J/Z services, which stop at Marcy Avenue, near his childhood home in Marcy Houses.
R (RR) The 1977 film Saturday Night Fever shows several clips of the subway, most notably Tony's ride on the RR train.
By medium
Comic books
In Tales of the Night Watchman #3 and #4, published by So What? Press, the story "The Dwellers of Big Bogie" takes place predominantly in the subway. A group of spider-like humanoids called Dwellers live in a cave beneath the L train in Williamsburg. It was written by Dave Kelly and illustrated by Amanda Scurti. In #3, Serena is mugged by a Dweller named Taryn while waiting for a train. In #4, Nora chases Taryn into the cave and is captured by its rulers, the maniacal Vera and her husband, the eponymous Big Bogie. In 2018, Dave Kelly and Simon Fraser began serializing a Tales of the Night Watchman strip in the Park Slope Reader, a local Brooklyn paper. The first story, "The Ghost Train", is about the elevated train involved in the infamous Malbone Street Wreck returning to terrorize the city on the centenary of the accident. The story debuted in the paper's Spring 2018 edition, number 64.