On Bloc Party's 2007 album A Weekend in the City, the opening track, "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)", is based on the main character from Ellis's novel Less Than Zero. The parenthesised part of the title refers to the billboard that Clay drives past in the book.

An album by Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet, was largely inspired by Ellis' novel, Lunar Park. While the novel is told from the father's point of view, the record is mostly from the son's point of view, although "My Ashes" reflects the regrets of the son's dead grandfather as they scatter his ashes, referencing the scene at the end of Lunar Park.

Eminem's group D12 have two songs called "American Psycho" and "American Psycho 2".

The Misfits have a song called American Psycho off their 1997 album American Psycho. The song is written about Patrick Bateman and references the story many times.

Bret Easton Ellis is mentioned in the songs "Obsessions" by the UK band Suede and "The Booklovers" by the Northern Irish band The Divine Comedy (which also could be a reference to Ellis phrase "This is not an exit" (American Psycho) taken from Dante's Divine Comedy, Hell - canto III.

A character in Tao Lin's 2009 novella Shoplifting from American Apparel, is said to be reading "a Bret Easton Ellis novel" while on a bus to Atlantic City.

Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers wrote a song about the character Patrick Bateman entitled "Patrick Bateman". The song was featured on the B-side of their single La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) released July 26, 1993.

In The Simpsons episode "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes" Uncle Herb gives "The Great Books of Western Civilization" to Lisa as a present. She would receive Ethan Frome first and the rest through installments, ending in Less Than Zero.

The mixed martial arts fighter Stephan Bonnar is nicknamed the "American Psycho" due to his clean cut facial features and resemblance to Patrick Bateman.

The 2009 Australia film The Beautiful and Damned directed by Richard Wolstencroft, and based on the famous sophomore novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is dedicated to Ellis.

Portuguese metal band Moonspell named a track in their 1999 album The Butterfly Effect "Disappear Here", having its lyrics inspired by the novel Less Than Zero.

In the 2009 film "17 Again" towards the end of the movie when the lead character, Mike O'Donnell, is describing his wife when he first met her he says when he first saw her she was reading Less Than Zero.

In the 2010 video game "Alan Wake", you play as titular character Alan Wake, deeply enshrouded in the mystery of his missing wife. Through-out the course of the game, Agent Nightengale keeps referring to Alan Wake as other well known horror and mystery writers as a way of antagonizing him. At one, while locked in jail, he refers to him directly as Bret Easton Ellis.