This success attracted the attention of Barack Obama, Rivers Cuomo, and Steve Aoki, who would all individually collaborate with AJR later.

[5] The bridge of the song uses "spokestep", a term the band created to refer to vocals that are heavily edited in the style of dubstep.

The band took inspiration from this, calling it "a very AJR'ish thing to say" and using its self-deprecating tones to create the chorus lyrics "I should stay strong, but I'm weak".

[12] The song's production began with a kick, snare, and reversed hi-hat for drums, an "epic and inspirational" bassline, and piano in 44 time signature in the key of F major.

This was re-performed on a hi-hat and production ended with the band sampling a digitally pitch-bended baby cry for a chorus melody.

A large production crew was present, which the band noted as a contrast to their previously produced music videos with lower budgets.

[19] The song's growth was a "very, very slow process", with the band recalling its streaming count updating by thousands per day initially.

[16] While climbing Billboard charts,[22] the band released the music video for "Weak" in March,[17] further pushing the song onto the Hot 100.

[30] Rivers Cuomo, frontman of rock band Weezer, additionally reached out to AJR via Twitter, which resulted in a collaboration between the two to produce the song "Sober Up".

[31] The song "Pretender" later released in 2018 as a collaboration between Steve Aoki, Lil Yachty, and AJR,[32] which the latter cites as another result of the success of "Weak".

[46][47] After the high commercial performance of "Weak", English singer-songwriter Louisa Johnson contacted the band, asking to make a version with her vocals replacing Avoricani's.

The band accepted due to their familiarity with her work with Clean Bandit and released "Weak (Stay Strong Mix)" through Black Butter Records on April 28, 2017.

[1][53] Additional performances in 2018 included iHeartRadio's ALTerEgo,[54] WRFF's Xfinity Live,[55] WQFM's Snow Show,[56] Sun Broadcast Group's Upfront Event,[57] and WINS-FM's Not So Silent Night.

[58] The song was further performed in 2019, including on Jimmy Kimmel Live!,[59] BottleRock Napa Valley,[60] KXTE's Our Big Concert,[61] Bonnaroo Music Festival,[62] WKQX's Piqniq,[63] the San Diego County Fair,[64] Firefly Music Festival,[65] LoveLoud Fest,[66] L.L.Bean's Summer Concert Series,[67] Lollapalooza,[68][69] the Great American Ball Park,[70] the Eastern States Exposition,[71] and iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball,[72] while also appearing in Neotheater World Tour shows.

[73] Concerts in 2020 were limited due to COVID-19, with the band performing at SeaWorld's Seven Seas Food Festival and some shows from the Neotheater World Tour before the pandemic.