The comeback of Rock
Preeminent music journalist Alan Cross releases his 2026 predictions for the music industry. He starts with two predicted artist revivals: U2 and RadioHead. He also thinks Rock will make a comeback, and links it to politics and generational tastes. In fact there is a throwback vibe in several of these predictions: “Rock will make a comeback,” and “Physical music will continue to be hot.” In a more progressive realm, he forecasts “The continuing rise of lossless audio.” He observes that “Even the streaming platforms have upped their bit rates to something that finally sounds like it did coming out of the studio.” Related to that, Cross imagines that wired headphones could make a comeback, to counter the low-bandwidth inferiority of Bluetooth headphones and earbuds. “If you want the full effect, you gotta plug in a set of cans,” he preaches. One more thing: Afrobeat. “There will be a Bad Bunny-like breakthrough by someone, probably via TikTok or Instagram. Then look out.” More HERE.
AI strategic advisor and founder of the Quantum Network Group Charleen Li has posted her 2026 predictions — “fun ones,” she advises. Originally presented in live video, her predictions are archived HERE. We would expect AI content in this exercise, and indeed the first forecast is this: “The AI bubble is real — and irrelevant to you.” The point there is that big disruptors mainly affect big institutions; Li cites the dot-com bubble as an example: it”bankrupted Pets.co but built the infrastructure that enabled Amazon and Google.” We will leak one more: “Your future leaders are disappearing” — with her reasoning below. Get the others (with much more context) in in her webinar recording HERE.
January 6, 2026
