ODES TO MEXICAN DRUG GANGS LOSE THEIR APPEAL

A String of Killings of Musicians WHO Sing About Drug Cartels Has Led
Many to Quit the Genre.

Mazatlan, Mexico - Songwriter Oswaldo Valdez stands with his brass
band, "Los Jaibos, on a street corner here, hoping to get hired for a
private performance that evening.

The real money, he knows, comes when a drug dealer requests not just
a gig but a personal tribute. Mr. Valdez will sit down, listen to the
dealer's story, and write him a narcocorrido.

The decades-old genre, which recounts tales of cultivating marijuana
in the sierra and escaping gunfire on the streets, has been blamed by
many for lauding criminals as heroes, much in the way rap music is
often criticized in the US.

Calls for censorship over the years have irked musicians. But that
stance is beginning to shift as drug-trade violence has escalated
throughout Mexico, in number and brutality, and several narcocorrido
artists have been killed as a result.

The recent string of deaths is prompting many, like Valdez, to think
twice about composing the lucrative, but potentially life-threatening, lyrics.

"I will work with the low-key guys, but I will not write about
murder, because then you, the singer, become a target," says Valdez,
who's based in the state Sinaloa, the cradle of Mexico's
narco-culture. "And we have to admit, it can generate violence, at
least between the drug traffickers."

Murders' Chilling Effects

Among the musicians killed in the past year, it isn't certain that
their lyrics landed them in trouble. One of the best-known singers,
Sergio Gomez, who led the group K-Paz de la Sierra, was killed after
a concert in the state of Michoacan in December, but was best-known
for his romantic ballads. Observers say some musicians may have been
victims of domestic disputes or even caught up in drug trafficking themselves.

Still, a trend - real or perceived - has chilled artists.

More than a dozen have been killed in the past two years, and that's
only the singers who make the news. In 2006, Valentin Elizalde was
killed after his song, "To All My Enemies," became a hit. Jesus Rey
David Alfaro, known as "El Gallito," was killed in Tijuana in February.

While corridos have been around since the Mexican Revolution, drug
traffickers didn't become the music's heroes until half a century
later. Calls for censorship came almost immediately, at least since
the release of the 1970s song "Contraband and Betrayal" by Los Tigres
del Norte, says Elijah Wald, author of "Narcocorrido: A Journey Into
the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas." In recent years,
politicians have called for restrictions and radio bans.

Though musicians generally resisted calls for censorship, some now
publicly support more controls. Julio Preciado, one of Mexico's most
famous banda singers, used to sing narcocorridos, but at a recent
concert in Mazatlan he belted his more famous themes of love and
unrequited love.

"I stopped out of respect to my family, he says, in an interview in
his tour bus after the concert. "But it's very complicated. It
generates a lot of money. I don't criticize those who do it. They are
like journalists.... The interpreters aren't at fault."

But even if their work is merely reflective in glorifying the
cartels' lawlessness, neither are they contributing to a solution, he
says. "It's much more dangerous now. And we have enough violence already."

His concert, which featured five groups - including the Tucanes de
Tijuana, one of the most popular narcocorrido bands today - was an
homage to producer Marco Abdala, who used to represent Mr. Preciado
and was kidnapped and killed three months ago in Mazatlan.

Narcocorridos are usually spun from nortenos, a polka-style genre
that originated in rural Mexico and is distinguished from other
country music by its use of the accordion. But musicians have used
all styles, including the brass bandas popular in Sinaloa, to produce
narcocorridos.

Where Narcocorridos Are Popular

The music appeals to the poor, especially those from the foothills in
Sinaloa, where many major drug lords get their start. "This is what
people like here: drugs, mafias," says Bernardo Felix, a resident of
the city Culiacan who points to the words of thanks left at the temple.

Narcocorridos are also popular here because drug trafficking is seen
as a way out of rural poverty, says Rigoberto Rodriguez, a historian
from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in Culiacan, and the music
glamorizes that escape.

Through the 1990s, narcocorridos exploded in popularity, says Mateus
Garzon, a concert promoter who helped organize the tribute in
Mazatlan. But these days, he says, "I think all of them are going to
start to think twice now about singing narcocorridos."

Not all fans will be disappointed. Though Felipe Alcocer says he came
to the concert to see the Tucanes de Tijuana, he says that, of all
their music, the narcocorridos appeal least to him.

The label narcocorrido is often applied to all songs that deal with
drugs, but Prof. Rodriguez says one should distinguish between
styles. Some groups do promote illicit activity; others, like Los
Tigres del Norte, write about society's ills as a form of social
criticism, he says.

Valdez, the songwriter, who also plays the accordian, admits that
narcocorridos are tempting. To play at a family party, his band often
gets $1,000, he says. A narcocorrido can bring in $4,000. But Valdez
says he'd rather be known for ballads. He got uncomfortably close to
the violence two months ago when his band was contracted to write a
narcocorrido for a party near Culiacan. The event ended abruptly when
someone was gunned down a few blocks away.

Such a situation can raise a singer's popularity. "But it's not worth
it," Valdez says.