Can pop be saved in 2012? Robbie Williams, the biggest British pop star of the past two decades, bows out of Take That again to reclaim his solo crown. It's hard to imagine kids getting too excited by this news. Williams will be 38 this year, and really qualifies as a veteran making a comeback. In many ways, the modern music business is being artificially sustained by the oldies, proven acts with CD-buying audiences and live cachet. They will be out in force again. Poetic genius Leonard Cohen, 77, returns this month, with his first album in seven years, while Paul McCartney, 69, has a new album in February. And proving you are really never too old to rock and roll, original heavy-metal band Black Sabbath return for an album and tour - at the combined age of 191. With rock in commercial decline , it relies on big old guns to keep blazing. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band return for their first album and tour since the death of saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher and Primal Scream are all venturing into psychedelic terrain with new albums. Rumours are strong that both the Rolling Stones and the Who will mark their 50th anniversaries with tours. Comparative youngsters Radiohead and Coldplay will be out on the road. New Order, the Stone Roses and the Beach Boys are among this year's friends reunited, but the most intriguing reunion is that of Blur, who will receive an outstanding-contribution-to-music award at the Brits next month. Britpop's most adventurous band have been in the studio, and if anyone can reconnect rock music to the modern pop pulse it is the restless genius of Damon Albarn - but first he's got another side project with his new afro-funk trio Rocket Juice & the Moon in March. Just to prove that guitars are not extinct, Queens of the Stone Age, Green Day and Muse all roar back into action. Garbage, Franz Ferdinand and the Ting Tings all return to find out if anybody still cares about them. But the guitar band with the most to prove will be new English folkies Mumford & Sons. They were the biggest British band in the world in 2010 but will need to pull something out of the bag to hold our interest. I have my eye, meanwhile, on a new British band called Dry the River who have taken the Mumfords" new folk-rock template into lyrically deeper, melodically richer and sonically more expansive terrain. There are, as ever, plenty of debut artists around. Among the most interesting to have shown their hand are raw British blues singer Cold Specks, afro-soul songwriter Michael Kiwanuka, glorious pop siren Ren Harvieu, American country gothic duo the Civil Wars and Swedish electro groovers Niki & the Dove. However, these are challenging times for music-makers, and, when it comes to writing the story of 2012, there is every chance that the most significant players will be those we haven't even heard of yet.