Mellodrama

Mellodrama explores the rise and fall of the Chamberlin and its better-known successor the Mellotron—the first musical keyboards to play the prerecorded sounds of other instruments. Essentially the first sampler, its haunting sound has changed the production and texture of popular music, from the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever," to Radiohead’s OK Computer and Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.”