"You can not un-hear what you grew up with, and you cannot avoid its influence" so everyone should just give up and sound like "Elvis, or the Beatles or Britney Spears"
Of course I was not saying that, and I certainly would not attempt to sing like all three at once!
I sing like me, but I sing differently from the way my grandfather would have sung an old song because I have grown up in a different popular culture. He would have heard Church choirs, Music hall songs, Brass band music, some classical music (he knew Elgar)and these would have been his influences. I am part of the generation who heard Rock, Jazz and blues before I heard many folk songs. My ear is good enough to recognise the sources of the improvisations and vocal mannerisms that I naturally adopt, and these sources are mainly African American- indirectly through popular music.
Believe me I hear the same influences in singers labelled traditional.
One of the big shifts in music has been timing. English music of the nineteenth century was normally played square. Notes fell strictly on the beat. Post WW2 most popular music uses a swung feel, the beats in the bar are pulled back or pushed forward from their strict position. We call it "groove". The chances are that unless you work with computer music production you will not notice, but there are very few people who naturally play right on the beat these days.
If you want to hear the difference, listen to a church choir sing a popular song, "Rhythm of Life" for example, and you'll hear something is missing. Getting a groove with a large ensemble takes a lot of musical ability.
For better or worse, the traditional style has gone and cannot be recovered, not should it be. Sing and play ther way that sounds good to you and forget about who did it that way before or where it comes from. You have thousands of ancestors, they are all your history. We're all mongrels. Enjoy the diverse opportunities.
Enjoy the present, it's the only time you've got.