What does it mean to be underground today?
There's on-going discussions, which I may agree or disagree with, that it is not possible to do something 'new' today because everything has already been 'done'. But it's at this very notion 'done' where people tend not to look further. This fixation on the past is a fixation on a text, action, song, or any artefact that happened in the past. Yet, we know, that a text relies on context for it to achieve meaning--and these meanings change, always, and constantly--they happen (and will continue to).
I believe that every action, event, language exchange, etc., is subjected to be received in a new way (because it has never happened in this time & space before). So, this notion of a happening, I believe is precisely what is 'underground' today i.e. any action that relies on the notion that the action won't happen again, and that if it does, it will never be the same.
We see an uprising in this approach towards cultural happenings--and in commerce as well. I mean, just to note the later, this is why companies have found it profitable to have 'pop-ups' i.e. a commercial 'happening' that appropriates the idea that this one-time experience will never be replicated. And as for culture, I have personally seen a shift in popularity from seeing a rehearsed concert that has a rehearsed sound that has a rehearsed set list that has a rehearsed speech that has a rehearsed soundcheck that has a prescribed sound. We already have Spotifiy at home--why do I need to experience it live?
We are, I think, seeking experience--something tangible and temporary to shake us back into reality--a reality that's honest, fragile, and human. These unrehearsed, pragmatic, and, frankly, bad, performances are perhaps the only thing left that is honest in our perfect, glistening, world.