Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Myung, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, before they dropped out to support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess.
Dream Theater has become a successful progressive metal band, despite the drop in popularity of the genre since the mid-1970s. Although the band has had a few successful hits (notably "Pull Me Under" in the early 1990s, which received extensive MTV rotation), they have mostly stayed underground for their career.
The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater's members have collaborated with many other notable musicians. Guitarist John Petrucci has been named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson and Robert Fripp.
The band's highest selling album is the gold selling Images and Words (1992), which reached #61 on the Billboard 200 chart. Both the 1994 release Awake and their 2002 release Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also entered the charts at #32 and #46 respectively and received mostly positive reviews. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also led to Dream Theater becoming the initial band reviewed in the Music Section of Entertainment Weekly during its opening week of release, despite the magazine generally preferring more mainstream music. In 2007, Systematic Chaos entered US Billboard 200 at #19. Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S., and over 8 million records worldwide. The band has finished recording their 10th studio album, and it is in the process of being mixed.

Background information

Origin : New York, USA
Genre(s) : Progressive metal, Progressive rock
Years active : 1985–present
Label(s) : Roadrunner, Elektra, EastWest, Atco, Mechanic Records
Associated acts : Liquid Tension Experiment, Liquid Trio Experiment, Explorers Club, MullMuzzler, Nightmare Cinema, OSI, Platypus, The Jelly Jam, Transatlantic, True Symphonic Rockestra, Chroma Key
Website : www.dreamtheater.net

Band Members

• James LaBrie - Lead vocals, Percussion (1991-present)
• John Myung - Bass guitar, Chapman stick (1985-present)
• John Petrucci - Guitars, Backing vocals (1985-present)
• Mike Portnoy - Drums, Percussion, Backing vocals (1985-present)
• Jordan Rudess - Keyboards, Continuum, Lap steel guitar (1999-present)

Former members

• Chris Collins - Lead vocals (1985-1986)
• Charlie Dominici - Lead vocals (1986-1989)
• Kevin Moore - Keyboards (1985-1994)
• Derek Sherinian - Keyboards, Backing vocals (1994-1999)

Discography

• 1989: When Dream and Day Unite
• 1992: Images and Words
• 1994: Awake
• 1995: A Change of Seasons (EP)
• 1997: Falling into Infinity
• 1999: Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
• 2002: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
• 2003: Train of Thought
• 2005: Octavarium
• 2007: Systematic Chaos
• 2009: TBA


Awards and Certificates
RIAA gold and platinum certification
1. Images and Words (Gold) - February 2, 1995
2. Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes From New York (Gold) - November 8, 2002
3. Live at Budokan (DVD) (Platinum) - January 26, 2005
4. Live in Tokyo/5 Years in a Livetime (Platinum) - March 22, 2006
5. Score (DVD) (Platinum) - October 11, 2006

Keyboard Magazine
Jordan Rudess was awarded the following 'Keyboard Magazine Reader's Poll award':
1. Best New Talent (1994)
2. Burrn magazine's best keyboards player of the year (2007)

Modern Drummer
Mike Portnoy won the following Modern Drummer magazine Reader's Poll awards:
1. Best Up & Coming Talent (1994)
2. Best Progressive Rock Drummer (1995-2006)
3. Best Recorded Performance (1995 for Awake, 1996 for A Change of Seasons, 1998 for Falling Into Infinity, 2000 for Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, 2002 for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and 2007 for Score)
4. Best Clinician (2000, 2002)
5. Best Educational Video/DVD (2000, 2002)
6. Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)

Guitar World
The album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was ranked #95 on the magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.

Total Guitar
John Petrucci won Guitarist of the year award (2007).

Other recognitions
• At Dream Theater's Salt Lake City show, Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed a proclamation making July 30, 2007 "Dream Theater Day".
• In December 2007, Dream Theater was chosen as Xbox Live's artist of the month.
• Dream Theater's music video "Constant Motion" was voted second in the Headbanger's Ball 2007 competition.
• Dream Theater's song "Panic Attack" off of their album Octavarium is featured in the video game Rock Band 2. The song "Pull Me Under" from the album Images and Words is also featured on Guitar Hero: World Tour.
• Since August 12, 2008 (Xbox 360) and August 14, 2008 (PS3), Dream Theater's song "Constant Motion" has been available for download for Rock Band. For the first month, it was available for a promotional price equivalent to $0.99 USD, but later reverted to a normal $1.99 cost for Rock Band downloadable content.