This article is part of the John Frusciante Challenge: 10 Articles in 10 Days. It is named after the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, as he recorded 6 albums in 6 months during 2004.
If you think that this content doesn't make sense, probably you're right! I still hope you'll enjoy it though...

After some articles having a decisive dark tone, I decided to publish something brighter. Let's put aside the pessimism for once, let's forget about all the things that don't work in our society and let's think positive! To help us with this daunting task, we will go through 11 songs that make me wanna live at the fullest!

11 - High – Lighthouse Family

Let's start with something light that sooths your soul: High. One of the most iconic songs of the 90s. I was a kid when this tune made me dream to "fly high in the sky". I knew that "one day we're gonna get so high!"
When you listen to this song, you will have a positive look at life. I love this mix of pop and soul music. The mix is well achieved with gentle arches that give a touch of heaven. A simple, beautiful, love song that can be used for every purpose. The secret stands in a thing that nowadays has been confined. Once upon a time in music there was something called Melody.

10 - Thunderstruck – AC/DC

First of all, the video for Thunderstruck is one of my favourite ones. Just for the drum-cam and the guitar-cam it is of the best ever made! I still remember when I watched this for the first time on MTV... I was simply thunderstruck!
AC/DC are a band that saved me, literally. They taught me that there is nothing wrong in falling into hedonism sometimes. Hedonism is a relative concept. It is the pursue of your own pleasure. What pleases you, depends only on you. You may laugh about this, but in my youth I was living in a society that was smashing you between the block of bigotry/Catholicism and the block of feminism/demagogy. Dreaming (and sometimes accomplishing hehe) to do the deeds told in Thunderstruck has been my way to sod off such limiting doctrines!
The world is already full of pain. Don't fee ashamed to embrace pleasure. You don't know when a thunder will strike you...

9 - Human After All – Daft Punk

Some of you might argue that this song is even too repetitive, but if you're a robot who wants to become a human, you must repeat until you don't change! It's a song of hope. It's a song that has asked me through my life if I could be more human in certain instances, given that sometimes I feel more like a machine. The song becomes like a pray in the last minute. It tries to hypnotize me to convince me that I'm a human after all, even when I'd like to be something else.
And after all, life is beautiful because I'm a human, even when I think like a robot... :)

8 - My Way – Frank Sinatra version

Among all these fast paced tunes, I have to spare a place for an articulated analysis over life.
The song is build over the motto "Live a life worth to remember".
The protagonist of these lyrics makes clear that "regrets, I had a few, but then again too few to mention". You cannot have regrets if you do things in your own way. Society will always try to "correct" you in the "proper" way, but if this way is not the best for you, don't hesitate to get off track and stand out from the crowd. The lyrics could have been written by a life coach! And a life coach would say to ignore what people think of you when you are doing something at your best or when you are saying something that must be said: "To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows and did it my way".
I'm working for a life that can be described by this wonderful, immortal song!

7 – Lucky (In My Life) - Eiffel 65

You all know Eiffel 65 because of Blue, the non-sense jingle that marked the new millenium advent. You can hear it even in Iron Man 3, just in the initial flashback where Tony Stark is indeed celebrating the 2000 NYE!
However, they have many other catchy tunes, and this one stands out for its cute lyrics. They sound like written by child, in a positive way. These lyrics are great because they are simple and most importantly, thankful! Being thankful is a concept hard to grasp for many people, probably the majority. Being thankful doesn't only mean to return a favour, but it means to recognize all the beautiful things you have in life. It means to appreciate what's beautiful in you, in what you have, in your loved ones, rather to waste energy always on what's wrong or even worse, what you think is wrong in your life!
So stop being grumpy, fix what it really needs to be fixed with your life and then look for a moment at the great things you have and say "thank you"!

6 - Vertigo – U2

This piece of hard rock made in Dublin is the song that made me focus with greater attention on U2. From there, the four Irish would have got a seat among my favourite bands.
I was starting high school and this tune completed the excitement to start a new important chapter of my life. As I used to be a very introvert, cold child, music like Vertigo pushed me to be more easy-going, open, brilliant than I used to be before.
As I told my mum one evening in the car: "This song excites me! It makes me think I can do great things!"
Great energizer that you can have in place of your toxic Red Bull!

5 - American Idiot - Green Day

"Don't wanna be an American Idiot!"
It's not about America only. I don't wanna be an idiot in general. In every nation, stupidity rules. The Silicon Valley even made stupidity a way of living, with so many apps and products aimed to kill every single neuron left in humans. Luckily, Green Day are here to pump the rebel in me! American Idiot is one of my signature songs in karaoke nights. When I sing this, my vocals get high and after, they will be able to sing everything!
"For that's enough to argue!"
Fast, rebel, catchy and straight to the point!

4 - Are You Gonna Be My Girl? - Jet

"I said: Are You Gonna Be My Girl?"
No? Then fuck you! :-D
I'm joking, but I'm sure you would if I were able to sing such a song with the same grit put by Jet! This Australian band looks like taken from the 70s and thrown into the 21th century. Yeah, they are born in the wrong era, but that's good for us that we can enjoy this catchy tune. Damn! When some DJ has a brain and plays some fast rock, this song drives me crazy! It makes me dance and jump so fast that I sweat cats and dogs even if there -20 degrees Celsius.
One of the most insane songs ever played! Wooooaauuuwwww!!! Yeah!

3 - What Is Love? - Haddaway

The question of the centuries! This song doesn't mind to provide an answer.
Eurodance is pure fun! Damn, I wish I was an adult during the 90s! That was real club life! You had the most creative musicians working to make you dance. It is the decade marked primarily by techno, which the mainstream/commercial face was indeed the cascade of Eurodance hits. And What Is Love is the signature song of this movement.
Now I'm taking lessons in salsa and bachata. Yeah, Latin music is great, so sensual and harmonic, but it also has strict rules, that sometimes make me suffer. Rules are hard to accept when it comes to an act where the pivotal point is to express yourself. To me this is the ultimate meaning of dancing and there is nothing like Eurodance for this purpose. Eurodance is pure freedom of expressing your true self! What better thing in life??? Don't think, just move your body the way you feel it!

2 - Ready To Go – Republica

Ready To Go... back the end of secondary school, when I was superhappy to depart from that shitty reality, when I was full of optimism and I was dreaming big! I'm no longer so optimist, but gladly I still dream big!
Ready To Go is a song that describes perfectly my way to experience happiness. That crazy will to do crazy things like go on the rooftops shouting that you're ready to go! Where? Anywhere you can do something big!
The outro is a pure non-harmful drug that gets you so high you wanna get out of home, run, laugh and shout happiness to the wind! Yaaayyy!!!

1 – It's My Life - Bon Jovi

"This ain't for the broken hearted!"
No song can make you love life more than It's My Life!
A splendid life anthem that reminds me that "I ain't gonna live forever. I just wanna live while I'm alive!"
Don't forget this guys. Like even Steve Job said "your time here is limited. Try to do something extraordinary."
This is what exactly I'm meant to do. I want that this old planet will have a great memory of me! I still haven't decided which extraordinary act will mark this, but I have many ideas in mind!
It's even thanks to this song and its twin Have A Nice Day that I didn't accept to follow the path taken by all of my friends: going to university with the hope of getting a piece of paper that could grant me a "normal job". If being normal means to be boring, then normality is not for me!