Stewart Copeland’s music for the video game Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer (1999), and the Copeland-inspired fan compositions by Zagir Fabarisov (MrModez), are shown to address notions of originality. My case studies consist of music in which the use of soundware is audible, enabling critical engagement with respect to these paradigms. The terms upon which soundware can be considered musicologically are demonstrated through a discussion of three interrelated conceptual and theoretical paradigms: originality, postmodernism, and intertextuality. This dissertation concerns the role performed by ubiquitous soundware in music production, and situates a meta-theoretical critique of the musicological discipline from the position that standard analytical methods exhibit their limitations when assessing soundware.
