“The DJ Is Crying For Help” is the second promotional single from AJR’s fifth studio album, following “I Won’t.” Continuing in their traditional coming-of-age storytelling, this song touches on experiences on the other side of childhood now that they are adults, more so than previous songs. With songs like “Don’t Throw Out My Legos” being about transitioning between childhood and adulthood, “The DJ Is Crying For Help” is more in line with “3 O-Clock Things,” offering a retrospective look at life now that they have some experience. They start to leave the party life and get a taste of what real life is like.

In his livestream breakdown of OK ORCHESTRA on November 22, 2022, Ryan shared the idea for the song started with Jack and that line: “The DJ is crying for help.” The DJ represents the protagonist of the story more so than a literal DJ in that the person who seems happiest and makes other people happy also has sad experiences. Parties give people the opportunity to forget the struggles of their lives. At some point, people need to grow up, find purpose and struggle to achieve it.

While the sounds of “The DJ Is Crying For Help” feel like an AJR song, they are structured in a way that is unconventional to their other songs. Most of them have a level of optimism that give them a party song-type feeling, and there are elements of that here as well, but “The DJ Is Crying For Help” starts off slow and builds up toward an end that is more somber, akin to their sleeper hit, “The Good Part.” This creative decision to have a happy/sad feeling helps ground the song in reality in the same way the DJ is themself.