Phil,
The "dated' critiques will often mean subject matter as much as any type of style. For instance. This week I had an artist I have worked with send me one of her newer songs. She is a beautiful singer songwriter, about mid thirties, great voice, but even she had a line in the bridge about "putting the ring on your finger."
Now, who talks about that any more? We are now in a lot of different TYPES of relationships. People live together, hook up, one night stands (we don't write that term anymore but it still happens) and still people get married, but they don't use those terms anymore.
Younger people tend to not think about marraige and artists always want to maintain an "illusion of avaialiblity" to their fans. So they are probably not going to talk about marraige.
A lot of time, musically will mean "dated." Think of the chord structure of "HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY." up against "DIRT." It is not that it has gotten MORE COMPLEX in the structure. It's actually gotten LESS complex. It is two chords in "DIRT" verses three in "Stopped Loving Her." But the groove, the attitude, the way the vocals lay down, are all modern, whereas "Stopped Loving Her" doesn't work as well in today's market.
I will tell you in my opinion what separates country from all other formats is LANGUAGE. In all the songs we outlined here, look at all of the LANGUAGE. It is all clear spoken conversational language.
"DIRT", while using the different rhyme scheme is VERY CONVERSATIONAL.
"AMERICAN KIDS" while being a bit more metaphorical, with the song and background references, is CONVERSATIONAL.
"BURNING IT DOWN" is WAY TOO CONVERSATIONAL.
But that is what separates all the songs from other formats. The chord structure, music, stay out of the way of the lyrics, even though they might drive them, the lyrics still lead. The story is still there.
In my opinion, SING IT LIKE YOU WOULD SAY IT, and you'll stay in the ballgame.
Writing with YOUNGER people is ALSO A HUGE KEY.
That is going to make a huge difference.
MAB