Drag Me Down

* Jamie Scott

"**Drag Me Down**" is a song recorded by English-Irish boy band One Direction as the lead single for their fifth studio album, *Made in the A.M.* (2015). The song was released worldwide on 31 July 2015 and was the band's first single since Zayn Malik's departure earlier that same year. "Drag Me Down" debuted atop the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand. It became the group's first number one single in France and Australia, as well as their fourth number one in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It debuted at number three on the *Billboard* Hot 100 chart and won the fan-voted 'Best Video Award' at the 2016 Brit Awards.

## Background and release

"Drag Me Down" is marked as One Direction's first single since Zayn Malik's departure in March 2015. The announcement of the release, with no previous promotion or marketing, was done by Liam Payne on his Twitter handle, followed by the rest of the members on 31 July 2015.

## Composition

"Drag Me Down" is a midtempo pop rock track written by Jamie Scott, Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, who wrote and produced several songs on One Direction's previous two albums *Midnight Memories* (2013) and *Four* (2014). According to *Los Angeles Times*'s editor Mikael Wood, the production contains springy guitars that recall The Police or "Rude" by Magic!. The song is written in C minor with a tempo of 138 beats per minute. It was composed in England.

## Critical reception

Jason Lipshutz of *Billboard* gave the song three and a half out of five stars and stated that the song offers a more "mature sound". He also commented "for those worried that a four-member incarnation of the group can't get the job done, "Drag Me Down" assuages those fears by keeping the overall quality level high" and "the group compensates for Malik’s absence by giving each member ample time to shine, and the harmonies admirably resonate on the call-and-response portions of the pre-chorus". Writing for *Idolater*, Robbie Daw commented that the song "comes across perhaps like the first One Direction song that might appeal to an audience outside of the band’s screaming core fan base".

Gaby Hernandez of *Rolling Stone* described the song as a "pop-rock track shifts the band’s sound from the softer folk of their last album, *Four*, back to the more upbeat, electronic heavy elements of their first two albums". Jamieson Cox of *The Verge* called the song "a slight departure from the music the band was making with Malik in tow" while commenting that "there's a bit of The Police in the loping, reggae-lite bass line and guitar riffs, and the song's structure is cribbed from the last few years' finest EDM-pop crossovers" and that "when you fold in the melody, the whole package reminds me of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble," and that qualifies as praise in this space". Noelle Devoe, writing for *The Daily Telegraph*, described the song as "rocking an even edgier, mature sound" and "a love song to their fans" while commenting on Styles' high notes. *The Herald* wrote that "in true One Direction style, Drag Me Down is a catchy love song with a poppy beat". Lewis Corner of Digital Spy gave the song three out of five stars, and stated that "Drag Me Down" is "one of their most pop-centric releases to date" and that "they may have taken a hit with the exit of Zayn, but One Direction are far from down and out".

Mikael Wood with the *Los Angeles Times* gave a more negative review, stating that the song is "all too accurately titled" and that it is "decidedly smaller-scaled" and "carries no such charge" compared to the band's previous songs. He added "we’re basically talking about a midtempo pop-rock jam with springy guitars that recall The Police" and the song is "more or less what you’d expect from a band of four good-looking white guys".

Past member Zayn Malik took to social media and praised the single, describing it as "sick" and stating that "he was proud of his boys."

## Music video

The video for "Drag Me Down" was directed by Ben and Gabe Turner and filmed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and premiered on Vevo on 31 July 2015. The video includes the band being put through their paces as though they are astronauts preparing for a space mission. It won the fan-voted 'Best Video Award' at the 2016 Brit Awards and as of 9 May 2022, it has been viewed over 1 billion times on YouTube.

## Remixes

In Fall 2015, the Big Payno Remix was released which features American rapper Lunchmoney Lewis which appears on their Perfect EP.

## Live performances

One Direction gave their first performance of the song on their On the Road Again Tour in Indianapolis on 31 July 2015 until the end of their concert tour. The song was then performed live as part of a series of free summer concerts in New York City for *Good Morning America* on 4 August 2015. The band also performed the song on several television programmes including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Jonathan Ross Show and Alan Carr: Chatty Man.

## Usage in media

An instrumental version of the song is heard in the television series *Grey's Anatomy* (season 13 episode 8).

The track is present on the soundtrack of the Brazilian soap opera *Totalmente Demais* (2015).

Song appears in the soundtrack of video game *Madden NFL 19* ("Longshot: Homecoming" only)

A rock cover of the song plays in Best Friends, For Never, the second episode of the first season of the DC Extended Universe HBO Max series *Peacemaker*.

## Commercial performance

"Drag Me Down" sold 349,000 digital copies in the United States and had 17.7 million streams worldwide in its first week of release. It broke the record on Spotify for most streamed track in one day, earning 4.75 million global streams (it has since been surpassed by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill" both receiving over 6.18 million global streams). The song also debuted at number three on the *Billboard* Hot 100, the second-highest debut of the year, with 349,000 downloads sold in its first week (making it the group's third number-one hit on the Digital Songs chart and the boy band's best sales week for a song).

Furthermore, the song topped the charts in twelve countries, including Austria, Australia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom.

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## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bradle, Lars (31 July 2015). One Direction Shares First Track Without Zayn Malik, 'Drag Me Down'. *Billboard*.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Template:Cite magazine
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lipshutz, Jason (31 July 2015). One Direction, 'Drag Me Down' Single Review: 1D Becomes Larger Than Life. *Billboard*.
4. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Goodman, Jessica (22 September 2015). "One Direction announce album name, *Made In The A.M.*". *Entertainment Weekly*. United States. Time Inc. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
5. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction win Best Video at Brits in fans vote". *ITV News*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
6. ↑ Anderson, Trevor (31 July 2015). One Direction's 'Drag Me Down' Tops Trending 140 There are many fictional stories on Wattpad, describing fictionally how the members of this band wrote the album, Made in the Am, in every fictional way. For example, 'Another Whisper in the Wind' and 'I'd lie' ! Chart. *Billboard*.
7. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction Releases Drag Me Down, Its First Single Since Zayn Malik Quit the Boy Band—Listen Now!". *E! News*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
8. ↑ Is One Direction's 'Drag Me Down' all too accurately titled?. *Los Angeles Times* (3 August 2015).
9. ↑ One Direction "Drag Me Down" Sheet Music musicnotes.com
10. ↑ Corner, Lewis (22 July 2013). One Direction: 'Best Song Ever' – Single review. Digital Spy. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
11. ↑ One Direction Drop New Single "Drag Me Down," Which Sounds Like Taylor Swift Meets The Police: Listen.
12. ↑ Spanos, Brittany (31 July 2015). Hear One Direction's First Post-Zayn Song.
13. ↑ Cox, Jamieson (31 July 2015). Listen to One Direction's first post-Zayn single, 'Drag Me Down'.
14. ↑ Devoe, Noelle (31 July 2015). BREAKING: One Direction Randomly Drop New Single "Drag Me Down".
15. ↑ One Direction release first track without Zayn Malik.
16. ↑ Corner, Lewis (31 July 2015). One Direction's new single 'Drag Me Down' first review – Signals a glossier output. *Digital Spy*.
17. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Is One Direction's 'Drag Me Down' all too accurately titled?". *Los Angeles Times*. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
18. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Zayn Malik on One Direction's 'Drag Me Down': 'The New Single Is Sick'". *Billboard*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
19. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction Are Made of the Right Stuff in Their 'Drag Me Down' Video: Watch". *Billboard*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
20. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction win best video for Drag Me Down - but only Louis and Liam collect it as other members snub the Brits". *The Daily Telegraph*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
21. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction Delivers 'Drag Me Down' Debut TV Performance on 'Good Morning America'". *Billboard*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
22. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction Performs "Drag Me Down" On 'The Ellen Degeneres Show': Watch". *Idolator.com*. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
23. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"The Jonathan Ross Show Episode 6". *ITV Press Centre*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
24. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"One Direction Drag Me Down Live on Alan Carr Chatty Man's Christmas". *Gostudioone.com*. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
25. ↑ Trilha sonora de 'Totalmente Demais' tem One Direction, Anitta, Emicida e mais (7 November 2015).
26. ↑ Brandle, Lars (9 August 2015). One Direction Earns First No. 1 Single in Australia With 'Drag Me Down'. *Billboard*.Template:Dead link
27. ↑ Brandel, Lars (9 August 2015). One Direction's 'Drag Me Down' Cruising to U.K. No. 1. *Billboard*.Template:Dead link
28. ↑ Ed Sheeran has broken Spotify's 'day one' streaming record. Yahoo (9 January 2017).
29. ↑ Trust, Gary (10 August 2015). Can't Feel My Face" tops Hot 100, One Direction debuts at number 3. *Billboard*.
30. ↑ The Hot 100 - the week of August 29, 2015. *Billboard* (2 January 2013).
31. ↑ Top 100 (6 January 2015).
32. ↑ Top 20 Ingles (es). Monitor Latino.RadioNotas (7 September 2015).
33. ↑ Digital Singles Charts – Greece. *Billboard* (2 January 2013).
34. ↑ One Direction. *The Official Lebanese Top 20*.
35. ↑ Top 20 Ingles (es). Monitor Latino. RadioNotas (7 September 2015).
36. ↑ One Direction - Portuguese Charts.
37. ↑ SloTop50 – Slovenian official singles chart. slotop50.si.
38. ↑ ARIA Charts - End of Year Charts - Top 100 Singles 2015. Australian Recording Industry Association.
39. ↑ Jahreshitparade Singles 2015.
40. ↑ Jaaroverzichten 2015. Ultratop.
41. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
42. ↑ Top de l'année Top Singles 2015 (fr). SNEP.
43. ↑ Single Top 100 - eladási darabszám alapján - 2015. Mahasz.
44. ↑ Classifiche "Top of the Music" 2015 FIMI-GfK: La musica italiana in vetta negli album e nei singoli digitali (it). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana.
45. ↑ Top 100-Jaaroverzicht van 2015. Dutch Top 40.
46. ↑ Jaaroverzichten – Single 2015 (nl). MegaCharts.
47. ↑ Airplay – podsumowanie 2015 roku (pl). Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry.
48. ↑ Årslista Singlar – År 2015 (sv). Sverigetopplistan.
49. ↑ Schweizer Jahreshitparade 2015 – hitparade.ch. Hung Medien.
50. ↑ End of Year Singles Chart Top 100 - 2015. Official Charts Company.
51. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
52. ↑ Pop Songs – Year-End 2015. *Billboard* (2 January 2013).

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