[1] "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).

[12] 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".

[15] 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".

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".

"[18] 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 alongside the song.

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.

[29][30] 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.