History Music / DreamTheater

** "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" is about how the media intrudes the private lives of celebrities.
** "The Looking Glass" can also be interpreted as this, though it's more criticizing people's desire for fame than it is criticizing fame itself.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1316176055096205500

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DreamTheaterMangini6_7616.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[ChewBubblegum We're here to rock hard and chew bubble gum, and we're all out of gum.]][[note]]From left to right: Mike Mangini, John Myung, James [=LaBrie=], Jordan Rudess, John Petrucci[[/note]]]]

%% * CallingTheOldManOut: "Honor Thy Father".
%% * TheCameo: Jordan has appeared on a Music/DavidBowie album.

** "Honor Thy Father" is a "hate song" variant of this trope written about Mike Portnoy's step-father.

** The twelve parts of the Twelve-Step Suite all start with "R": Reflection, Restoration, Revelation, Reflections of Reality (Revisited), Release, Ready, Remove, Regret, Restitution, Restraint, Recieve and Responsible.

* WholePlotReference: "Pull Me Under" to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', "In the Presence of Enemies" to ''Manhwa/{{Priest}}'', ''Music/TheAstonishing'' to "Music/TwentyOneTwelve". The first two are confirmed as intentional by WordOfGod.

** John Petrucci has admitted that "In the Presence of Enemies" is inspired by the Korean comic book ''Manhwa/{{Priest}}''.

** The announced track listing for ''A View From the Top of the World'' has the eponymous song (20:24) as its closer.
* LongRunnerLineUp: Type two; the [=LaBrie=]/Myung/Petrucci/Portnoy/Rudess lineup lasted for just over eleven years. The [=LaBrie=]/Mangini/Myung/Petrucci/Rudess lineup also hit ten years in 2020.

* Mike Mangini - drums (2010-)

* Mike Portnoy - drums, backing vocals (1985-2010)

* ArcNumber: "Octavarium" uses the idea that [[WhereItAllBegan everything ends where it began]] and uses the number 8 and the octave as examples. What's more is that it's the eighth track on their eighth album and it's length in minutes ([[EpicRocking twenty-four]]) is divisible by 8. Various other elements in the song also allude to cycles and/or the number 8. According to ex-drummer Portnoy, the album's concept stemmed from his realising that (a), ''Octavarium'' was to be their eighth studio release, and (b), they had just released their fifth live release (''Live at Budokan'').

* IAmTheBand: Myung and Petrucci are the only original members of the band who've been there throughout it's entire history. It's fair to say that Dream Theater is their band.

%%* CoolOldGuy: Jordan Rudess.

* LongRunnerLineUp: Type two; the [=LaBrie=]/Myung/Petrucci/Portnoy/Rudess lineup lasted for just over eleven years. The [=LaBrie=]/Mangini/Myung/Petrucci/Rudess lineup hits ten years as of 2020.

+ Music/{{Rush}}, Music/{{Yes}}, Music/LedZeppelin, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Kansas}}, Music/{{Queen}}, Music/{{Genesis|Band}}, Music/IronMaiden, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Journey|Band}}, Music/{{Pantera}}, Music/{{Muse}}, Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Watchtower}}

*** "Trial of Tears" references, at various points, [[Music/{{Rush}} "Xanadu", "The Trees"]] and the jingle from ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''.

* NotChristianRock: On occasion, most prominently with "The Spirit Carries On", which may sound Christian at first listen, but is part of a ConceptAlbum dealing with the very un-Christian topic of {{reincarnation}}. Note that erstwhile drummer Mike Portnoy is Jewish, as is keyboardist Jordan Rudess.

* ReligionRantSong: While they have several examples that qualify as NotChristianRock, they also have several of these, such as "In the Name of God" (which generally protests religious war and terrorism, though it's specifically about the Branch Davidian siege in Waco in the early '90s) and "Blind Faith" (which protests the use of religious faith as an excuse for ignoring terrestrial suffering).

** "In the Presence of Enemies" {{bookends}} ''Systematic Chaos'' in much the same way "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" bookends ''Music/WishYouWereHere'', fades in and out with wind sounds, and opens its second segment with a bass line. The long instrumental opening to "Octavarium" also seems like a tribute to "Shine On", which opens much the same way.

** Also present in the backing vocals to the TitleDrop section of "Build Me Up, Break Me Down." They get [[UpToEleven more prominent]] each time the section repeats.

** "The Dance of Eternity" is particularly infamous for this with [[UpToEleven over a hundred time signature changes in just over six minutes]]. The page image for the trope is Mike going over the many time signature changes in the second half of the song.

+ Music/{{Rush}}, Music/{{Yes}}, Music/LedZeppelin, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Kansas}}, Music/{{Queen}}, Music/{{Genesis|Band}}, Music/IronMaiden, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Journey}}, Music/{{Pantera}}, Music/{{Muse}}, Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Watchtower}}

* FilkSong: "Pull Me Under" is one for ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' while "In the Presence of Enemies" is one for ''Manhwa/{{Priest}}''.

* OneWomanWail: The intro to ''Through Her Eyes'' on ''Metropolis, Pt. 2''.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
** Happens fairly often. Examples include "Vacant" into "Stream of Consciousness", "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" into "Lost Not Forgotten", "Misunderstood" into "The Great Debate", and "Hell's Kitchen" into "Lines in the Sand".
** ''Scenes From a Memory'' is gapless aside from Scenes 5 and 6, which is a division between acts.
** Heck, they have even done this between albums. For example, ''Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence'' begins with static, which ''Scenes from a Memory'' ended with. The next album, ''Train of Thought'', begins with by fading in with the same chord that ''Six Degrees'' fades out with. To cap that off, the last note on Train of Thought is the same one that starts ''and'' ends Octavarium - making a "lasso" of those four albums.

** John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, and Jordan Rudess are ''Music/LiquidTensionExperiment'', along with Tony Levin, who's no slouch himself and played with Music/KingCrimson and members of Music/{{Yes}} and Music/{{Genesis}}.

+ Music/{{Rush}}, Music/{{Yes}}, Music/LedZeppelin, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Kansas}}, Music/{{Queen}}, Music/{{Genesis}}, Music/IronMaiden, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Journey}}, Music/{{Pantera}}, Music/{{Muse}}, Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Watchtower}}

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness:
** Their 90's material is generally a 6 ("Surrounded", "Innocence Faded", "Hell's Kitchen", etc.) or a 7 ("Pull Me Under", "Metropolis Part 1", "6:00", etc.), while their 2000's material is generally a 7 ("The Great Debate", "The Root of All Evil", etc.) or an 8 ("The Glass Prison", "As I Am", etc.). 2011's ''A Dramatic Turn of Events'' is mostly a solid 7. Their softer songs are generally in the 3/4 range (except for Level 1 songs such as "Wait for Sleep", from ''Images and Words'', and "The Silent Man", from ''Awake'').
** Some instrumental sections (like the blastbeats in "A Nightmare to Remember") get as high as 9.
** On the whole, it can be hard to classify their songs on this scale due to prevalence of EpicRocking in their work and their corresponding habit of having different sections of their songs fall all over the scale. For example, "Pull Me Under" has sections that get as heavy as 8 (the chorus sections and the coda, most notably) and others that drop down to 1 or 2 (the midsection, the intro). Overall, this songs still is around a 7, though. This is common for ProgressiveMetal bands, not surprisingly.
** Some of their '90s material can also arguably climb up to 8 overall - "The Mirror" and "Lie", most notably.

* BadassBeard: Jordan Rudess' famous chin-beard. John Petrucci's has become this by the time of ''The Astonishing'', and Mike Portnoy's came in a variety of different colours.