I’ve thought about this too, and it’s especially obvious in Dolores’s case because The Cranberries were never regarded as a “cool” band (so not cool, in fact, that Eminem sampled them on his new album). Like the coverage of Prince and Bowie’s deaths in 2016 felt genuine because those were acts that were still generally well-regarded despite their best material clearly being behind them (Blackstar tho). Cranberries, meanwhile, were a band pretty firmly embedded in the 90s so all these publications rushing to acknowledge her when no one was mythologizing them like other greats of decades past or even mentioning her did look a little foolish.
Pitchfork will generally do a Pitch piece on a deceased musician if they had some degree of influence, hence their “Why Cranberries Singer Dolores O’Riordan’s Voice Lingers” (cheesy title) piece, although the only coverage they had given the band before that was a mention of their acoustic 2017 album, naming the Bury the Hatchet cover as one of the worst album covers of all time, plus their collaboration with The Smiths (D.A.R.K.), probably reported because it had The Smiths. I’m guessing we’ll see a Sunday review of No Need to Argue or Everyone Else… sometime soon as well. She really did have a great voice so it’s sad to see these halfhearted acknowledgements of that. :-/
