MCMXC A.D. - Impact of MCMXC A.D.

Impact of MCMXC A.D.

The album was named as one of the most important and influential albums of mainstream New Age in the 1990s. The album not only popularized the "Enigmatic" music style but also introduced some technical music production changes. With MCMXC a.D., Michael Cretu developed the technical features and intentions of sampling. Though samples were in use long before (introduced by such musicians as Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze and others), Cretu built his own music around whole sequences of previously recorded parts. His method was not remixing and remodelling, but rather recontextualisation: changing a piece of music’s natural environment. This new method of composing and album creating process was mainly adopted by hip-hop artists, as well as electronic music producers. It was one of the first albums to be recorded directly to hard drive. MCMXC a.D. was one of the first steps in a series of developments which would eradicate the division between mainstream and underground culture.

Controversy surrounded the music in the album for both its religious and sexual overtones, particularly the first three singles. The video clip for "Principles of Lust" was banned from MTV and most TV stations, who were also unwilling to play the music videos for "Sadeness (Part I)". The album itself was banned in several countries because of that same reason, while critics have slammed the songs in the album as blasphemous. Nevertheless, the popularity of the album shot up to number one in at least 24 different countries in where it was released, reaching gold and platinum status.

The success of MCMXC a.D. influenced the works of B-Tribe (Fiesta Fatal!), Delerium (Semantic Spaces, Karma), Banco de Gaia, and even Sarah Brightman (Eden). The album was also a stepping stone for the creation of many other groups who mainly include Gregorian chants in their music, such as Era and Gregorian, which was founded by Frank Peterson prior to his falling out with Michael Cretu.

In addition, Cretu received a total of 1.4 million pre-orders of their next album, The Cross of Changes which was launched even before MCMXC a.D. fell out of the charts after four years.

In 1994, Polydor Germany sued Cretu and Virgin Germany for infringing on its "right of personality" in the samples used in "Sadeness (Part I)" and "Mea Culpa". The lawsuit was settled out of court, after Cretu agreed to pay compensation to the original creator of the samples.