[3][4] As Richard Elfman's interest shifted to filmmaking, he passed leadership of the band to younger brother Danny, who had recently returned from spending time in Africa playing violin and studying percussion instruments.
Musical performances were often augmented by humorous skits, costume changes, and projected short films and animations, including the original "Tender Lumplings", which was often shown in this period and would be revived many years later towards the end of Oingo Boingo's subsequent lifespan.
"[8] This is strongly evidenced in the original material he wrote and composed for the band during this time, taking cues from the music of Duke Ellington and Django Reinhardt in songs such as "Hold Tight" and "You Must Be Dreaming" (both recorded in demo form in 1978).
[10] The film's theme, "Forbidden Zone", was described by Danny Elfman as the first song he consciously wrote, composed and arranged for electric instrumentation, marking the beginning of a new artistic direction.
The new songs specifically took after the then recent developments of punk ("Marching In Time"), new wave ("Cruisin"), ska ("Ain't This The Life", a very fast and energetic cover of The Beach Boys' "California Girls", with revised and humorous lyrics), 2 tone and highlife ("Louise", "Make It Right") all while still maintaining threads of the pre-rock musical idioms the troupe had been specializing in ("Nuclear Babies", written during this period, is a noticeable return to the doo wop sound of a few years previous).
In mid-1979, Danny decided to officially disband the Mystic Knights to form a dedicated rock band in this new musical style, shortening the name to just Oingo Boingo.