"What's This Life For" is a song by rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Creed

Creed (band)

Creed is an American rock band formed in 1995 in Tallahassee, Florida. Becoming popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the band has released three consecutive multi-platinum albums, one of which has been certified diamond, and has sold over 28 million records in the United States, with an...

. It is the third single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 off their 1997 debut album, My Own Prison

My Own Prison

My Own Prison is the debut album by Creed, released on August 26, 1997 . It has been certified 6x platinum and is one of the top 200 selling albums of all time in the United States. The person kneeling on the album's cover is Justin Brown, a friend of the band...

. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the U.S., becoming their first #1 hit on this chart. It remained on top for six weeks.

Vocalist Scott Stapp

Scott Stapp

Scott Alan Stapp is an American musician and singer-songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Creed, of which he is a founding member. His debut solo album, The Great Divide, was released in 2005. A second album, Between Lust and Love, is currently in production...

 and guitarist Mark Tremonti

Mark Tremonti

Mark Thomas Tremonti is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the lead guitarist of the American rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. He is a founding member of both bands...

 wrote this about one of their friends who had committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. The lyrics deal with the difficulties in finding happiness

Happiness

Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....

 and meaning in the world. It is the only Creed song to contain a use of profanity

Profanity

Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

. The first half of the word goddamn is censored in the Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits (Creed album)

Greatest Hits is a greatest hits compilation album from the rock band Creed. It was released in 2004, soon after the announcement that the band had broken up, and that lead singer Scott Stapp and the other members of the band would go their separate ways . It consists of every one of their U.S...

album. "What's This Life For" also appeared in the film Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert...

.

Chart performance

Chart (1998)	Peak position
Canadian RPM Alternative 30 RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...	6
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...	10
U.S. Active Rock Active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock plays contemporary rock artists with a mix of songs common in the classic rock radio format.-Format background:...	1