{"id":64057,"date":"2026-05-07T13:40:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/why-every-rb-singer-is-leaning-on-their-album-covers-now\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:40:31","slug":"why-every-rb-singer-is-leaning-on-their-album-covers-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/why-every-rb-singer-is-leaning-on-their-album-covers-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Every R&B Singer Is Leaning on Their Album Covers Now"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tWhat does it mean to lean? Several R&B artists this year are giving a comfortably relaxed nod to a tradition that dates back decades: Soul singers stretching out placidly and invitingly on their album covers. The year isn\u2019t even half over yet, and new releases by Eric Bellinger, Durand Bernarr<\/a>, and Ari Lennox<\/a>, among others, depict the artists each reclining on their album covers just like Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, and, of course, Michael Jackson did in the Eighties.<\/p>\n

\n\tBellinger, who recently put out the heart-on-sleeve slow jam \u201cCry in Front of You,\u201d<\/a> spotted the coincidence early and leaned into it on social media. \u201cGreat minds think alike,\u201d he wrote in an Instagram post<\/a>. He accompanied the observation with a photo showing the sleeve of his upcoming self-titled album, slated to arrive this summer, on a grid alongside Bernarr\u2019s and Thriller<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith this project being my self-titled album, I knew it was important to do something classic for the cover,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone <\/em>via email. \u201cI tapped into a much more personal and vulnerable approach this time around, so my first thought was to channel the energy from the greats like Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, and Teddy Pendergrass to bring back the legendary LEAN.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pose has been a go-to look for R&B singers since at least Aretha Franklin\u2019s 1979 LP, La Diva<\/em>, and Teddy Pendergrass followed suit with an extra sexy look on his face on the cover of his 1981 album, It\u2019s Time for Love<\/em>. Lennox perfectly approximates Franklin\u2019s confidence and repose on the cover of her latest album, Vacancy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut of course it was Michael Jackson\u2019s Thriller <\/em>that made look iconic the following year. Dick Zimmeran, Thriller\u2019s <\/em>cover photographer, has said that the whole shoot took six or seven hours and began in earnest when Jackson asked to wear his white suit (echoing Pendergrass); then they just played around with poses, and a tiger cub. Eventually, Quincy Jones picked the cover shot.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore and more lookalikes followed suit in the next few years. Richie did his own lean on the cover of his \u201cYou Are\u201d 7-inch in 1982, Finis Henderson III skipped to the lou<\/a> with an old-timey microphone as a prop on the cover of 1983\u2019s Finis<\/em>, and Vandross gave it a go on Give Me the Reason<\/a> <\/em>in 1986. But the trend faded out by the end of the Eighties.<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhen Bellinger discovered he was part of a leaning tower of song this year, his first impulse was to shoot a new cover. \u201cBut as I prayed on it and thought more about it, I remembered my original inspiration was a greatness that all of us are chasing,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I started to feel the likeminded connectivity and resurgence amongst the gentlemen in R&B and honestly felt like it was necessary to just release mine to the world and let them decide. I was shocked to see the people rally behind me and support my original idea to KEEP THE LEAN!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Bernarr\u2019s funky new single, \u201cAm I Okay?!,\u201d<\/a> he sings, \u201cFor a small piece of your time, I\u2019ll pay a fee\/Just to sit here on this couch and bare my soul.\u201d But on the cover of Benarr.<\/em>, he\u2019s not sitting, he\u2019s leaning. He tells Rolling Stone <\/em>he found the coincidence of other artists with the same swagger amusing. \u201cFunny thing about Eric, we ran into each other a couple weeks before the drop and he told me he did the lean, also,\u201d he says via email. \u201cI encouraged him to still go with his vision because it\u2019s almost a rite of passage to lean on your album cover at LEAST once!<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c2026 is absolutely the Year of the (shoulder) LEAN!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n\tPhotographer Juan Veloz, who shot Bernarr\u2019s sleeve, says his goal was to emulate the classics, naming Jackson\u2019s, Vandross\u2019, and Richie\u2019s sleeves as inspiration. \u201cThe moment we saw that lean pose, we knew the album was going to be iconic!\u201d he says. \u201cWe took the inspiration and made it our own, from the styling to the set design to the lighting to capturing the true essence of Durand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe origins of the pose, at least as it relates to Thriller<\/em>, came under discussion recently as the internet discovered the 1982 self-titled debut album by R&B artist Alfonzo Jones<\/a>, a singer with a Michael Jackson\u2013like voice who ostensibly put out his self-titled debut months before Thriller <\/em>with a sleeve that showed him leaning. But Jones, who says the pose came about organically, and others agreed the similarities were likely a coincidence.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tQuestlove, who spoke with Rolling Stone <\/em>about Alfonzo<\/em>, offered a theory about why the look was so popular.\u201d Luther, Lionel, and Teddy Pendergrass and what not, maybe laying on the floor was just the \u2018serious pose,’\u201d Questlove told Rolling Stone <\/em>for the feature. \u201cI did a lot of research on the Thriller<\/em> cover, and I was told that Michael\u2019s Thriller<\/em> pose was almost an afterthought.\u2026 Laying down was more about accommodating the tiger that Michael wanted to include on the cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAlfonzo could have been influenced by my cover image, but after 44 years I have a feeling that Thriller<\/em> has outlived many additional similarities visually and musically and perhaps will outlive any other plagiaristic imitations in the future!\u201d Zimmerman told Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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