He Sees No Rainbow

In the July 15 Pop Eye column, Patrick Goldstein is quick to congratulate Atlantic Records on recent bold moves, and his article centered around the label’s “no-holds barred spoken-word album ‘Sound Bites From the Counter Culture,’ which features a rainbow coalition of pop-culture rabble-rousers.”

Rainbow coalition? All nine contributors to this collection are white males. The forum is exclusionary, and the compilation obviously omits women. The headline blares “Atlantic Bites Back With Free-Speech Album”; I’m shocked that The Times trumpets the label and this product.

Goldstein quotes Atlantic Records A&R; executive Toby Emmerich: “We’re in a tremendously conservative period and we think the music industry should be speaking out about it.”

I am.

HARVEY ROBERT KUBERNIK

BarKubCo Music Inc.

Los Angeles