The sound design in the TV drama Skins helps convey the age of the characters. Aggressive heavy metal music represents some teenagers, while ambient bird sounds create a calm atmosphere. The characters are generally rebellious and disrespectful, partying and using foul language. However, some characters subvert stereotypes, like the openly gay teenage ballet dancer. While most representations are negative, conforming to genre conventions, this negative portrayal also appeals to the target teenage audience as they can relate to the situations.

1. TV Drama: Skins Analysis
1. How does the sound help to convey the age of the characters?
The parallel sound used to compliment the drama is quite up-tempo and happy which
conveys the nature of the characters. The main character uses non-digetic sound
when he is playing his own music from his stereo which is heavy metal this
represents some teenagers who enjoying listening to that music type – the music is
aggressive and loud which can help to emphasize the nature of some teenagers. The
birds tweeting is an ambient sound used to create a peaceful and calm atmosphere
which subverts to the stereotypical view of a teenager.
2. How are the characters represented?
The teenagers in this episode appear rebellious. For example, one of the teenage
characters arrives home in the morning from a night out of partying in which the main
character aids her to get back into the house without the parents knowing so they are
oblivious of their daughter’s whereabouts. The way that the teenage characters talk
to their parents and towards each other is quite disrespectful shown through the foul
language used between characters and the frequent sexual conversations; this
conforms to the conventions because it is expected for teenagers to have bad
attitudes and to rebel. The adults in this drama appear to have no control over the
teenagers and the father of the main character acts quite similarly to the teenagers
which subverts from usual conventions but it may be a way of showing that the
behaviour of teenagers is learnt from parents. There are characters in this drama that
subvert to the stereotypical teenager such as the teenage boy ballet dancer who is
quite open about his homosexuality and also has heterosexual friends which is
unusual for typical teenagers but skins helps us to look at these situations from a
different language.
3. Is the representation positive or negative and does it conform or subvert to the
genre?

2. The representation of the teens in the drama are generally negative, conforming to
the conventions as representation of teenagers in the media. However, the negative
representation conforms to the genre of a teenage drama.
4. How does the representation appeal to the target audience?
The representation of the teenagers in skins appeals to the target audience of teens
as they are able to relate to it well encouraging them to want to watch it because they
understand the situations they are going through and also some of the characters
subverting to the conventions will be related to by a minority of teenagers so it covers
all different types. The exaggerated lifestyle of the teenagers increases the comedy
factor to the drama.