Line #74 Music/OingoBoingo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Oingo_Boingo_9948.jpg]]
2
3	-> ''"Come on board on the Oingo Boingo spaceship, through time and space, to the Boingo galaxy!"''
4
5	In 1972, a young visionary from UsefulNotes/{{California}} named Rick Elfman decided to form a circus band. The lineup soon consisted of over a dozen people, including his wife Marie-Pascale, his best friend Matthew Bright (who would go on to direct ''Film/{{Freeway}}''), a young Steve Bartek, and Rick's little brother Music/{{Danny\|Elfman}}, who had just returned from traveling Africa and Europe.
6
7	With Danny as a frontman, and using his skills on the violin, xylophone, trombone [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Balinese dance]] to give the band its unique sound, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTRd1a5MVMw The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo]] were formed. Their fans included a young Music/WeirdAlYankovic, an up-and-coming Creator/PaulReubens, and a very young Creator/TimBurton, who was attending [=CalArts=] at the time.
8
9	At the end of TheSeventies, the band sold everything they had to create the no-budget sci-fi cult classic ''Film/ForbiddenZone''. Having no money to hire a proper crew, Danny decided to score the film himself, and realized he enjoyed being a film composer.
10
11	During the film's DevelopmentHell, Danny had taken over and re-formed the band (without older brother Rick) to incorporate his new symphonic sound into their music. The group very quickly took off in the direction of {{Ska}}-tinged {{New Wave\|Music}}. The new band, called Oingo Boingo, was formed in 1979.
12
13	The band became known for its quirky sound and its high-energy Halloween concerts. By 1985, they were scoring hits including "Dead Man's Party" and "Weird Science", and Creator/TimBurton and Paul Reubens (both fans of ''Forbidden Zone'', coincidentally) had given Danny his [[Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure first real job]] as a film composer. Many, many others soon followed.
14
15	In 1994, Danny Elfman suffered a breakdown due to his work on ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', resulting in a brief falling out with Tim Burton. Because Danny wanted to go in a different direction, the band reshuffled its lineup, rechristened themselves Boingo, and recorded a SelfTitledAlbum which focused most on the rock and orchestral influences of the band's sound. It was partly inspired by Danny listening to his daughter's album collection, which included Music/TheBeatles, Music/JimiHendrix and Music/LedZeppelin. Their new sound alienated many old fans and gave them plenty of new ones. But by that time, and particularly after a truly terrible gig at the KROQ Weenie Roast, the group realized that their time together was over. The band retired after a farewell concert on Halloween 1995, having reverted to the name Oingo Boingo for the concert.
16
17	A reunion is confirmed to be out of the question, as many of the original members, including Elfman, have developed irreversible hearing loss as a result of playing loud rock music in front of huge amps for so long. Nevertheless, each member has done well for himself: bassist John Avila went on to produce Music/ReelBigFish and is currently playing with TheMutaytor. Keyboardist Richard Gibbs got hired to score ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}''. Drummer Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez continued playing in various bands and had a cameo in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn''. Guitarist Warren Fitzgerald joined TheVandals. Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright created half a dozen film projects together. And Music/DannyElfman became a full-time film composer, with Steve Bartek as his arranger and [[https://youtu.be/9uS0YQjzUa8 occasionally performing classic Boingo songs with him live]].
18
19	----
20	!!Studio discography:
21	* ''Music/OnlyALad'' (1981)
22	* ''Nothing to Fear'' (1982)
23	* ''Good for Your Soul'' (1983)
24	* ''So-Lo'' (1984)[[note]]billed as Music/DannyElfman's solo debut, but functionally an Oingo Boingo record[[/note]]
25	* ''Music/DeadMansParty'' (1985)
26	* ''Boi-Ngo'' (1987)
27	* ''Dark at the End of the Tunnel'' (1990)
28	* ''Boingo'' (1994)[[note]]as Boingo[[/note]]
29
30	----
31	!!"I-I-I-I love little Tropes!":
32	* TheSixties: Both "Just Another Day" and "Dead Man's Party" evoke this - "Just Another Day" with its psychedelic imagery and wailing synthesizer, and "Dead Man's Party" with its surf-rock guitar and a pre-climactic bridge that is eerily reminiscent of [[Music/TheDoors "Light My Fire"]].
33	* AdultsAreUseless: "Only a Lad" is about a psychopath called Johnny whose increasingly violent acts are excused by the grownups around him because of his young age. Towards the end, the song's narrator is fed up with this lenience and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech finally tells Johnny to burn in hell]].
34	* AllTakeAndNoGive: Defied in "Not My Slave". The narrator tries to talk his love interest out of her submissive tendencies, insisting she's not his property and that he just wants her to be happy.
35	* BigBrotherIsWatching: "Perfect System", "Wake Up (It's 1984)", "Grey Matter", "Controller" and "Burn Me Up". "Marching In Time" may count as well.
36	* BlackComedy: "No One Lives Forever" and "Only a Lad", among others.
37	* BreakupSong: "Goodbye Goodbye", "Better Luck Next Time", and "Can't See (Useless)".
38	%%* BystanderSyndrome: "Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me"
39	* {{Calacas}}: The cover to the album, ''Dead Man's Party'' shows a load of mexican-themed skeletons celebrating.
40	* ConceptVideo: The music videos for "Little Girls", "Private Life", "Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me" and "Gratitude".
41	* ConspiracyTheorist: The narrator of “Controller”. "Perfect System" might count.
42	* CoverVersion: "[[Music/TheKinks You Really Got Me]]", "[[Music/TheBeatles I Am the Walrus]]" and "Violent Love"[[note]]by Willie Dixon[[/note]].
43	** And as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, they covered [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFLjSrTMHQ "St. James Infirmary Blues".]]
44	* CrapsackWorld: A distressingly large number of their songs seem to be about (with apologies to Music/IronMaiden) the evil that men do. Murder, statutory rape, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mindless mischief]] are all on hand in abundance, along with plenty of paranoia and apocalyptic imagery. And the most horrifying part? It's all served up in the form of [[CrapsaccharineWorld infectiously catchy Latin/Caribbean-styled pop-rock]]!
45	* CreepyChildrenSinging / KidsRock: In the chorus of "Insanity".
46	* DarkIsNotEvil: "Dead Man's Party" and many other songs.
47	%%* TheDeadCanDance: "Dead Man's Party"
48	%%* DontFearTheReaper: Again, "Dead Man's Party".
49	%%* {{Dystopia}}: "Perfect System"
50	* ElevatorGoingDown: "Elevator Man". [[{{Hellevator}} It doesn't end well.]]
51	* EpicRocking: Much of their final studio album ''Boingo''. Four songs exceed 7 minutes: "Insanity", "Hey!", "Pedestrian Wolves" and "Change" (with "Change" clocking in at just under 16 minutes). Even including [[SingleStanzaSong the 37-second doggerel track]] "Tender Lumplings" in the mix, the 12 songs on the album ''average'' over 6 minutes each.
52	* EvilRedhead: Or at least ''creepy as hell'' - Elfman's persona in the videos.
53	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Change" glides to a comfortable ending after 15 minutes, only to return for the final verse and chorus.
54	* FauxAffablyEvil: The eponymous Elevator Man. "I'm so polite" indeed.
55	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
56	** The marimba lead break on "No One Lives Forever" resembles something akin to a test run for Elfman's score for ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''.
57	** "Nasty Habits" and "Little Guns" both resemble an early version of "Breakfast Machine" from ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure''.
58	%%* FishOutOfWater: "On The Outside"
59	%%* ForScience: "Weird Science"
60	%%* FracturedFairyTale: "Cinderella Undercover"
61	* FriendToAllChildren: In "Long Breakdown":
62	-->I believe, I believe in the cry of little children\
63	There's a thorn in my side that makes me want to free them
64	* GenreRoulette: Sometimes. Probably the weirdest examples are "Country Sweat" (a slowed-down country version of "Sweat"), "Water" (BlueGrass), and "Burn Me Up" (thrash metal with a '''''saxophone chorus''''').
65	* HalloweenSongs: The band produced a lot of Halloween appropriate songs that usually find themselves on most people's Halloween playlist, most notably "Dead Man's Party" and "No One Lives Forever".
66	* {{Hellevator}}: "Elevator Man"... [[GainaxEnding possibly.]]
67	* HypocriticalHumor: The adults in "Only a Lad" say of the title character, "society made him" and "he's our responsibility"...then proceed to do ''absolutely nothing'' to curb his behavior.
68	* IAmTheBand: {{Inverted\|Trope}} with ''So-Lo''; the album is credited to Danny Elfman alone, but is in actuality a full-on Oingo Boingo album, with the full band being just as involved there as on previous and later records. Its misleading billing as an Elfman solo album was mainly due to legal issues, as the band were in the middle of a ChannelHop from Creator/AAndMRecords to Creator/{{MCA}}.
69	* IJustWantToHaveFriends: "Private Life"
70	-->This is my private life, come and get me out of here
71	* IconicOutfit: Throughout the 1980s, Danny Elfman could usually be seen sporting a white vest and tight black trousers.
72	* IntercourseWithYou: "Wild Sex (In the Working Class)", "Violent Love", "Elevator Man" and "Elementary Physics".
73	%%* ISeeDeadPeople: "Mama"
74	* KarmaHoudini: Johnny in "Only a Lad" gets away with arson, theft, assault, and vehicular manslaughter because the judge believes it's society's fault he's such a psychopath. However, the narrator predicts - or at least hopes - that Johnny will go to Hell when he dies.
75	* KubrickStare: Elfman gives several throughout the "Dead Man's Party" video.
76	* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: The music videos for "Little Girls", "Nothing Bad Ever Happens To Me" and "Stay".
77	* LonersAreFreaks: Played with in "On The Outside": the narrator thinks himself a weirdo for not fitting into certain social norms and is laughed at for trying, but the last verse indicates that he'd rather be a weirdo than a slave to trends.
78	* LyricalDissonance: ''Lots'' (which describes how justifiably paranoid a lot of people have become from the dangers of the world); “Controller” (where the singer panics about someone coming for him) and "Little Girls" (where the singer outright brags about being a pedophile) spring to mind, and especially "Tender Lumplings".
79	* MadScientist: The narrator of "Weird Science".
80	* MagicKnight: Invoked by their original name, ''The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo''.
81	* ManipulativeBastard: The song "Gratitude" is sung from the point of view of one who appears to be mocking the people they manipulated.
82	* MotorMouth: Danny in [[https://youtu.be/DLCad05tTB0?t=122 "Goodbye Goodbye"]]:
83	-->You're always puttin' the make on my friends always giving them eyes and the dirty lies 'bout me and you well I'm through it's the end of the line for you babe here's a ticket one way Cincinnati I'm sendin' you home to your ma and your daddy so don't try to call me you'll only be wastin' your ''[[CarefulWithThatAxe tiiiime]]''! [[note]](In case you weren't counting, it takes Danny less than eight seconds to spew all that out.)[[/note]]
84	* NewSoundAlbum: The band is notable for each album, though they're all very much [[BuffySpeak Boingo-y]], having their own sound, and there's a clear stylistic shift as they go on. The first three albums are heavier on the [[PunkRock punk]] and [[{{Ska}} ska]] elements, with ''Good For Your Soul'' being [[DenserAndWackier a bit quirkier and weird]] than the [[BlackComedy pitch-black comedy of]] ''[[BlackComedy Only A Lad]]'' [[BlackComedy and]] ''[[BlackComedy Nothing To Fear]]''. ''So-Lo'' toned the punk and ska down, slowed the music down a bit, and increased the use of synths, a trend that would continue on ''Dead Man's Party'' and coalesce into the LighterAndSofter [[{{Pop}} pop rock]] style heard on ''BOI-NGO''. ''Dark At The End Of The Tunnel'', while still low-key, had more of an [[AlternativeRock alternative sound to it]] and became [[DarkerAndEdgier much more serious and introspective lyrically]]. ''Boingo'' took that and ran with it, dropping much of the band's signature use of horns and focusing more on rock and symphonic elements, with songs like "Pedestrian Wolves" being even DarkerAndEdgier than ''Dark At The End Of The Tunnel'' when it came to lyrics.
85	* NightmareFetishist: The narrator of "Pedestrian Wolves":
86	-->I'm so excited about the prospects\
87	Of meeting with a stranger in an alley\
88	I'm so excited, I hope they're rough\
89	I hope their skin is tough like Spanish leather
90	%%* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Nasty Habits"
91	* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: They were originally The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, then Oingo Boingo, and finally just Boingo. (They went back to Oingo Boingo for their farewell concert.)
92	* OneWomanSong: "Louise" and "Mary".
93	* PerformanceVideo: "Dead Man's Party" is the most straightforward example. "Private Life", "Stay" and "Weird Science" combine this with ConceptVideo, while "Just Another Day" shows the band onstage but has some [[SurrealMusicVideo odd]] touches.
94	* PervertedPig: "Piggies" is about a man named Piggy, who is shown to be rather perverted. At the beginning of the song, Piggy meets a woman known as Baby at a disco bar, and immediately becomes drawn to her because of her "rocket tits".
95	* PrecisionFStrike: In "Capitalism", "Helpless", and "Hey!".
96	%%* RaisedByWolves: "Pedestrian Wolves"
97	* RevolvingDoorBand: Oingo Boingo, by themselves, changed lineup five times, 3 of which were keyboardists coming and going, 1 of which was switching a bassist, and the last of which was adding three more musicians for their final album. The Mystic Knights, on the other hand? [[ExaggeratedTrope They went through 19 band members and performers, some of whom don't have reliable information on precisely when they were in the band.]]
98	* RhymingNames: The band itself, Oingo Boingo.
99	* SanitySlippageSong: "Insanity" and ''so many others''. "Whole Day Off", "Insects", "I'm Afraid", "Just Another Day", "Mama", "Something Isn't Right", "Did It There" and "Helpless" readily come to mind.
100	* ShoutOut:
101	** [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour "Wake Up (It's 1984)"]], for obvious reasons.
102	** "No Spill Blood" is one long shout-out to ''[[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau The Island of Doctor Moreau]]''.
103	%%* SingleStanzaSong: "Tender Lumplings"
104	* SkeletalMusician: The cover art of "Dead Man's Party" features a skeletal mariachi band.
105	* SlasherSmile: Danny in most of their music videos.
106	** If it's not this, it's the KubrickStare.
107	* SocietyIsToBlame: Mocked in "Only a Lad":
108	-->It's not his fault that he can't behave\
109	Societys made him go astray\
110	Perhaps if we're nice he'll go away!
111	* StalkerWithACrush: "Something Isn't Right". "Insanity" might also count, but it's unclear what the relationship is between the narrator and the owner of the "pretty head".
112	* SubliminalSeduction: "Cry of the Vatos" which features heavy drums, frantic screaming, and full-volume backmasked lyrics... which when played in reverse, says things like "Accept Jesus into your heart and you will be saved. You will receive everlasting life."
113	* TakeThatCritics: "Imposter", written after a scathing review the band got in 1981.
114	-->You're just a critic, we know why you drink so much\
115	Jealousy slowly consuming your gut
116	* TakeThat
117	** The song "Capitalism" is a Take That inspired by the left-leaning PunkRock bands at the time.[[note]]Although the song's message reflects values which Elfman himself no longer holds (or never held to begin with, depending on who you ask), the lyrics are just vague enough to also be interpreted as condemning the privileged hypocrisy ''created'' by capitalism, thus making it popular on both sides of the political spectrum.[[/note]] It includes the immortal tirade:
118	--->You're just a middle class socialist brat\
119	From a suburban family and you never really had to work\
120	And you tell me that you've got to get back\
121	To the struggling masses, whoever they are\
122	You talk, talk, talk about the suffering and pain\
123	Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain\
124	What the hell do you know about suffering and pain, ya [[PrecisionFStrike dumbfuck?]]
125	** Conversely, "Insanity" is a Take That towards the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_right Christian Right:]]
126	--->Let's talk of family values while we sit and watch the slaughter\
127	Hypothetical abortions on imaginary daughters\
128	The white folks think they're at the top, ask any proud white male\
129	A million years of evolution; we get [[UsefulNotes/DanQuayle Danny Quayle]]
130	** The video for "Weird Science" shows [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed look-alikes of other pop stars of the time]] (Music/CyndiLauper, {{Music/Madonna}} et al.) in chains doing slave labor.
131	%%* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: "Out of Control"
132	* TeenPregnancy: In "Sweat":
133	-->The cool girls got knocked up\
134	[[Music/CyndiLauper They only wanted to have fun]]
135	* TestosteronePoisoning: Deconstructed in "Tough As Nails". The protagonist, "Mr. Macho", constantly daydreams about being a ladykilling action hero as an escape from his depressing life.
136	* VideoFullOfFilmClips: The videos for [[Film/BackToSchool "Dead Man's Party"]] and [[Film/WeirdScience "Weird Science".]]
137	* VillainProtagonist: The narrator of "Little Girls" is clearly not a good guy, as the song consists of him bragging about being a pedophile and the bridge lyric has him angrily state that he has no regard for those who'd be disgusted by his proclivities.
138	* WhiteGuilt: "Capitalism" is, in part, about this.
139	* WordSaladHorror[=/=]WordSaladLyrics: "Just Another Day", "Whole Day Off", "Reptiles and Samurai", and "Dead or Alive", among others.

Context Music / OingoBoingo