Yeah, that’s a big drawback. The folks that are lucky enough not to be exposed to the actual current pop stuff have no real connection when it is parodied. A shame, I always liked Weird Al.
Freegards
Here’s a guy who probably starting goofing on popular music songs in college or something, found that he had a gift for it, and parlayed it into a successful career. And the world is richer for it.
It serves to help the public “recognize” the songs when they hear the originals in public.
But on the other hand, it also works like the Nazi swing recordings where OTHER messages were slipped into the song and the listener may start casually slipping in the parody phrasing instead of the original, regardless of who sings it.