Luis R. Conriquez took the stage at a popular fair in Texcoco, Mexico, as one of the headlining acts.

Once called the “Corridos King” by Billboard magazine, the Mexican musician is renowned for his specialty of so-called narcocorridos, a version of the traditional Mexican ballads that celebrate drug cartels.

But hours before performing earlier this month, Mr. Conriquez announced on social media that he wasn’t going to perform several of his signature songs. Instead, he was joining a movement sweeping across Mexico to phase out this prominent genre of music, which its critics argue promotes the violence and criminal activity that have ravaged the country.

The crowd booed Mr. Conriquez and trashed the instruments after he and his band left the stage.

“It feels bad not being able to sing what people want to hear,” Mr. Conriquez said on social media, “but we join the cause of zero corridos.”

It was a pivotal moment for Mexico, which is wrestling with both the effects of organized crime across the country, particularly amid pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on cartels, and its identity as defined through popular culture.