A Christgau word before I hit the road...

trope n. 1. A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor. 2. A word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies. (dictionary.reference.com)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs [Shifty, 2001]
femme-punk self-definition, by now a trope among many others, done with spunk, funk, and downtown noise ("Bang," "Mystery Girl") *** (www.robertchristgau.com)