This research explores how cultural backgrounds influence the performance of masculinity in boybands through a cross-cultural comparative study of One Direction and EXO. This study examines visual and performative signs of masculinity in their music videos and stage performances. Across the research process, a descriptive qualitative analysis was conducted, utilizing Peirce’s semiotics in various categories such as personal appeals, performance styles, artist-fan interactions, aesthetic choices, music video concepts, and overall group images. The contrasting approaches in One Direction and EXO represent how their cultural backgrounds of Western and Eastern significantly influence their masculine representation in contemporary popular culture. The findings indicate that One Direction embodies complicit masculinity while EXO is considered to be marginalized masculinity in Connell’s framework. Furthermore, One Direction is identified as metrosexual masculinity while EXO is postmodern masculinity in Jung’s category. These findings confirm that boyband masculinity is not singular or static. It is adaptable, culturally encoded, and dynamic instead. As it is extremely dependent on the industry and society's demands. One Direction’s masculinity is privileged by its Western identity, EXO’s masculinity is constructed in response to the marginalization, demonstrating how different forms of masculinity are established under particular cultural circumstances.
