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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 one of the most successful progressive rock bands since the height of the genre in 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, feeding off support from their fans.

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 was named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson, Robert Fripp, and Yngwie Malmsteen.

The band's two highest selling albums are the gold selling Images and Words (1992), although it reached only #61 on the Billboard 200 charts, and Awake (1994) which reached #32 on the Billboard 200. Recently Systematic Chaos entered US Billboard 200 at #19.  Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S., and over 8 million albums and DVDs worldwide.^[3]

The band is currently promoting their latest effort, Systematic Chaos, with a world tour that began on June 3, 2007 in Milan, Italy.

 1985: Beginnings

Founding members (from left to right) John Myung, Mike Portnoy, and John Petrucci in 1985.

Dream Theater was formed in September of 1985 when guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung decided to form a band in their spare time while studying at the Berklee College of Music. The pair came across drummer Mike Portnoy in one of Berklee's rehearsal rooms, where he was asked to join the band. The trio started off by covering Iron Maiden and Rush songs in the rehearsal rooms at Berklee.

Myung, Petrucci, and Portnoy settled on the name Majesty for their newly formed group. According to the The Score So Far… documentary, they were waiting in line for tickets to a Rush concert at the Berklee Performance Center while listening to the band on a boom box. Portnoy commented that the ending of the song "Bastille Day" (from the album Caress of Steel) sounded "majestic." It was then decided that Majesty would be the band's name .

The trio then set out to fill the remaining positions in the group. Petrucci asked his high school band-mate Kevin Moore to play keyboards. After accepting the position, another friend from home, Chris Collins, was recruited as lead vocalist after band members heard him sing a cover of "Queen of the Reich" by Queensrÿche During this time, Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung's hectic schedules forced them to abandon their studies to concentrate on their music. Moore also left his college, SUNY Fredonia, to concentrate on the band.