An odd phrase usually used to
disparage. Features might include:
not "
selling out"
continually looking for the new direction and not just cranking out similar or
derivative works
not
pandering to the public/
lowest common denominatornot pandering to or compromising for a sponsor
not following well-trodden paths
not employing
hackneyed clichesnot going for the cheap
yuks by
lampooning the popular, simple and feeble
not over-
dramatizing one's role.
Those would just be the teensiest start of a definition.