Negotiating Authenticity: Tre Cooper Explores Cross-Genre Singing and Stylistic Decision-Making

What does it mean for a singer to sound authentic when performing in a genre outside their usual style? And how can voice teachers help singers develop stylistic versatility without losing their individual artistic identity?

These questions sit at the heart of Tre Cooper’s dissertation, Negotiating Authenticity Through Stylistic Decision-Making in CCM Cross-Genre Voice Pedagogy. A CCM (Contemporary Commercial Music) voice coach, pedagogue, researcher and performer, Tre explored how singers navigate authenticity when stepping outside their familiar musical styles, and what this means for the way voice teachers approach cross-genre training.

Drawing on his own experiences as a performer and voice teacher, Tre’s research examines the relationship between a singer’s sense of self, their understanding of a particular genre, and the way an audience perceives their performance.

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What Does Authenticity Mean in Singing?

For Tre, the starting point was a question that proved more complicated than expected: how do we define authenticity?

Coming from a contemporary worship background, Tre had always considered authenticity an important part of performance. When a performance does not feel genuine or believable, audiences can often recognise it. However, when singers explore styles outside their usual repertoire, communicating that sense of authenticity can become more challenging.

Rather than viewing authenticity as a fixed quality that a singer either possesses or lacks, Tre’s research approached it as something that is negotiated between three key elements:

• Sense of self: The singer’s individual identity, experiences and artistic intentions.

• Stylistic fluency: Their familiarity with the conventions and characteristics of the genre they are performing.

• Audience perception: Whether the performance is interpreted as genuine and believable.

This perspective raises important questions for singers and teachers alike. If a performer feels disconnected from an unfamiliar style, does that mean they cannot perform it authentically? Or is authenticity something that can develop as they become more comfortable and confident within that genre?

Stepping Outside the Stylistic Comfort Zone

Tre’s study explored what happens when singers move beyond the genres they know best. Participants were invited to explore unfamiliar styles, including gospel, heavy rock and country, contrasting these with their more familiar musical backgrounds.

Although vocal functions can overlap across genres, the stylistic choices that make a performance recognisable can differ considerably. Phrasing, tone, ornamentation, rhythm and dynamics all contribute to the way a particular style is communicated.

For example, riffs, runs and embellishments are important features of gospel singing. However, applying the same approach to heavy rock may not produce the intended effect. The choices that help a singer communicate convincingly in one genre may feel out of place in another.

This highlights an important distinction: being able to produce a particular sound is not necessarily the same as understanding what that sound communicates within a genre.

For singers exploring different styles, developing this understanding involves more than simply reproducing unfamiliar sounds. It requires an awareness of how stylistic choices contribute to the musical message and how those choices can be adapted to suit different contexts.

Genre as a Vocabulary, Not a Rulebook

One of the central ideas emerging from Tre’s research is that genre conventions can be understood as a kind of vocabulary rather than a rigid set of rules.

Learning the vocabulary of a genre gives singers the tools to communicate within it. As their familiarity grows, they can begin to experiment with those tools, deciding which characteristics to retain, adapt or reject while still conveying the style convincingly.

This approach has important implications for voice pedagogy. Rather than teaching singers to replicate a particular sound without question, teachers can help them understand why certain stylistic choices work and what they communicate to listeners.

As Tre explains, the role of the voice teacher should be about more than helping singers reproduce a particular song or sound. The aim should be to give singers options, rather than simply creating clones.

Through listening, demonstration, imitation and experimentation, teachers can help students recognise the characteristics that define a style. From there, singers can develop the confidence to make informed decisions about how those characteristics fit with their own artistic identity.

Ultimately, the goal is to develop a versatile set of tools that singers can draw upon depending on the demands of a particular performance.

Authenticity as Something That Develops

One of the most interesting findings from Tre’s study concerned how participants viewed their own authenticity before and after exploring unfamiliar genres.

Before the cross-genre activities, most participants believed they could remain authentic regardless of the style they were singing. Following the exploration, however, many recognised that they did not necessarily feel authentic in those unfamiliar styles yet.

Importantly, this did not mean they believed authenticity was unattainable. Instead, they recognised that they needed more time and greater stylistic fluency to feel comfortable expressing themselves within the new genre.

This finding suggests that authenticity may not be a prerequisite for learning a style. Rather, it can emerge as singers develop the skills and familiarity needed to communicate within it.

For voice teachers, this offers a useful way to approach the challenges students encounter when learning unfamiliar repertoire. Feeling awkward or disconnected from a style at first does not necessarily indicate that a singer is incapable of performing it authentically. It may simply be part of the learning process.

Giving students time to explore, practise and develop their understanding of a genre can help them move towards performances that feel more natural and personally meaningful.

From Technical Competence to Expressive Agency

Another key theme in Tre’s research was the relationship between technical competence and expressive freedom.

When singers work in unfamiliar styles, much of their attention can be taken up by the demands of producing new sounds, understanding stylistic conventions and making unfamiliar technical decisions. This can leave less mental capacity available for expression.

Tre connected this observation with cognitive load theory, which considers the demands placed on working memory during learning and performance.

As unfamiliar stylistic and technical decisions become more familiar, they can require less conscious attention. This creates more room for singers to focus on interpretation, communication and artistic expression.

Tre describes the resulting freedom as “expressive agency”: the ability to make expressive choices with greater confidence and intention, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the technical and stylistic demands of a performance.

This presents an interesting challenge for voice teachers. Singers need to think carefully about new techniques and stylistic choices while learning them, but the longer-term aim is often for those choices to become more automatic. With greater familiarity, singers can move beyond simply trying to produce the right sound and begin to explore what they want that sound to communicate.

What Does This Mean for Contemporary Commercial Music Pedagogy?

Tre’s research encourages a broader understanding of what it means to develop a versatile singer.

Technical ability and healthy vocal function remain essential, but they are only part of the picture. Singers also need to understand how vocal choices operate within different musical styles, and how they can navigate those conventions without losing their own artistic identity.

For CCM voice teachers, this means considering not only whether a student can produce a particular sound, but also what that sound communicates within its musical context.

It also means recognising that stylistic versatility is not simply about accumulating a collection of sounds to imitate. It involves developing the listening skills, genre knowledge and decision-making abilities needed to use those sounds purposefully.

By helping singers understand the relationship between technique, style and expression, teachers can support them in becoming more adaptable performers who are equipped to make their own informed artistic choices.

Continuing the Conversation

For Tre, this research grew from a personal interest in how to perform authentically outside his own stylistic comfort zone, and how to help the singers he works with do the same.

He currently offers online and in-person singing sessions through Tre's Music Services, including drop-in sessions for singers preparing for auditions or upcoming performances, as well as regular lessons. He is also exploring the possibility of developing his research into a short course.

His work opens up valuable questions about the relationship between vocal technique, stylistic learning and artistic identity. By viewing authenticity as something that can develop through experience and growing stylistic fluency, Tre’s research offers voice teachers another way to support singers as they explore new genres.

Rather than asking singers to choose between stylistic accuracy and personal expression, the challenge is to help them develop the tools to bring the two together.

To find out more about Tre’s work and singing sessions, visit Tre's Music Services.