Imagine a pop song as a little balloon, slowly losing helium year after year as history rolls over it. When some contemporary band gets the weirdo idea to randomly cover it, the balloon gets a little injection of helium. It’s still going to deflate and fall into the sea eventually, but maybe a kid sees it who wouldn’t have seen it otherwise, and it enters their imagination, and something is changed. Maybe they make their own band that decides to cover it, or rip-off part of it, etc.
Weezer didn’t do anything transformative to the songs at all (which itself is kind of amazing in its unflinching droll-ness) but they refreshed a pack of songs for the metaphorical time capsule, for better or worse.
