The music for the series is composed by Ramin Djawadi. The first season's soundtrack, written in about ten weeks before the show's premiere, was published by Varèse Sarabande in June 2011. Soundtrack albums for the subsequent seasons have also been published, featuring tracks performed by the bands The National, The Hold Steady and Sigur Rós.
The series' instrumental title music has been covered numerous times. Lyrics were added for the first time in 2014, when "Weird Al" Yankovic performed a parody version during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards presentation. In 2015, Forte Tenors added lyrics based on High Valyrian text for their operatic performance and music video, released in March.