Sociological Analysis Using Wendy Griswold’s Cultural Diamond

The cultural diamond theory by Wendy Griswold helps in the sociological analysis of relationships or influence between the factors such as creators, cultural objects, the society and the people. According to Braham (2013), the theory emphasizes on shaping and creating culture with time. This theory conceptualises that cultural objects such as traditions or art is changed or shaped by the creator of the culture, the consumers of the culture and the sociological context in which the culture is valued or promoted. Considering a case of a music video, named as “There’s no one at all”, which was introduced among the Vietnamese culture. According to Hai (2023) this music video was uploaded by Son Tung M- TP, who is a music artist in Vietnam. The music video introduced by the artist served a s a cultural object for the people of Vietnam, as the video conveyed a message of loneliness, hopelessness and loss of confidence. The study analysed how the art of the artist aligned with its actual meaning and how the audience perceived it differently. The study revealed that the musical video was misinterpreted and perceived wrongly by the people. The message behind the video was to express emotions and feelings and to create awareness about the dark side of loneliness and hopelessness, instead, it was perceived as an expression of promoting suicide or suicidal thoughts among people. As a consequence, the music video got banned under the censorship rules and regulations, and the art was devalued due to wrong perceptions of the people.

From the Griswold’s theory of cultural diamond, this case can be viewed as how a cultural object which was a music video was shaped by the social factors of the society, and the creator, Son Tung’s piece of art got banned. This also reveals how the audience (Vietnamese people) lead to different opinions due to social and cultural factors, and how the social world, which were the Vietnamese censorship laws and regulations, and the moral values of the society led to the removal of that piece of art. Therefore, it could be said that the social world holds strong significance on influencing how the culture is shaped among people, and how the audience, the creator and the cultural objects shapes the cultural practices, values and beliefs on a broader sociological context.

References:

Braham, P. H. (2013). Key concepts in sociology.

Hai, H. (2023). Using the Culture Diamond Model to Analyze the Relations between the Artists on Audiences through Music Videos under Vietnamese Social Context Based on Case Study MV “There’s No One At All”: Perspective from Students at FPT University. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 13(5), 333-337. https://www.ijssh.net/uploadfile/vol13/1167-CS5016.pdf