Mad #420

Mad #420 from August 2002 goes all-in on music industry satire with a sprawling, densely packed cover by Scott Bricher that riffs gleefully on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album art — cramming dozens of recognizable music figures, celebrities, and cultural figures into a flower-bed tableau spelled out as "MUSIC," surrounded by stacks of cash, cannabis plants, weapons, syringes, and an MTV television set. Front and center, figures resembling Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne anchor the crowd, while Alfred E. Neuman peers up from a military uniform amid the chaos. The main feature, "Mad's 50 Worst Things About Music," promises the magazine's trademark sharp, affectionate skewering of everything that makes the early-2000s music scene so gloriously ridiculous.