is it just me or is the underground music industry is going down?

I was going to suggest that it was an overall symptom of a an ailing economy, but @FourWalls has a very good explanation. I might also add that if these bands are pretty unknown then people are not likely to say to their friends, "hey, let's go listen to such and such". Pretty much if it is a band you love it may be a single person night out. No group dates.

hmmm,,,feeling unhappy

There's an old saying here in the U.S.: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." (That's not the actual quote from Henry Mencken, but that's what it's been distilled to.) The same thing happens her in the U.S. all the time: a band like Alabama, who made a career on three songs, sold out arena after arena, while a from-the-heart singer/songwriter like Wayne Hancock played (and still plays) bars and clubs. Monday night I'm going to see the man who is unquestionably one of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years -- Gordon Lightfoot. I just found out he's playing in town, and yet I was able to get a really good seat. He should have been sold out. But people will go see people who write nonsensical songs and can't even sing but have their voices corrected by pitch altering software, paying $200-$300 per ticket. My personal opinion is that mainstream music is so cookie-cutter that people don't really know there are alternatives to it. If you use the term "alternative" people think "grunge" or "punk" and say, "Oh, I don't like that." In reality, anything that is not "mainstream" is "alternative," as in, an alternative to the mainstream music. I prefer the people who make less money per year than Miley Cyrus is making in 20 minutes...because at least those people are writing and singing from their hearts.