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During Pulp's exceptional 1990s peak, attempting to upstage Jarvis Cocker was a foolish undertaking, but bassist Steve Mackey, who passed away at the age of 56 following a prolonged period of illness, came quite close. Mackey, an exemplar of self-contained cool and dance-influenced grooves, played a crucial role in defining the Pulp sound and look. While Cocker was the insinuating, finger-pointing extrovert on stage, Mackey, who was reserved and elegant, was an attraction in his own right. His basslines gave Pulp a disco undertow that set them apart from their indie peers.

After joining the band in 1989, the Sheffield group underwent a transformation. No longer struggling art-rockers, they became danceable art-poppers and found their own place as Britpop's unconventional outliers.

Mackey’s description of their sound was, without much exaggeration, “Eastern European Balkans disco with acid house and Sheffield bleep music.”

During the mid-1990s when Pulp was making waves, some of their success could also be attributed to Steve Mackey's expertise in managing the band's visuals alongside Jarvis Cocker in the early years. As a graduate of the Royal College of Art in film, Mackey was in charge of overseeing graphics and video concepts with Cocker, who had studied film and video at Central Saint Martins in London.

When selecting the artwork for their critically acclaimed 1994 album, "His 'n' Hers," Pulp opted for Philip Castle due to their admiration of his poster design for "A Clockwork Orange." The band received exactly what they paid for. Castle's hyper-realistic drawing style portrayed each member with a confrontational appearance, with Steve Mackey standing at the back and wearing a "come on, then" expression. On the other hand, despite his height of 6'2" and striking good looks, Mackey was also capable of exuding a smoldering teen-idol appearance, as captured in an early-1990s photo by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

Steve Mackey was not only passionate about music, but he also had a deep love for photography, which he eventually turned into a second career in the 2010s. He went on to shoot campaigns for top fashion brands such as Armani Exchange, Miu Miu, and Marc Jacobs's 2018 Redux Grunge collection. Additionally, he worked for the fashion magazine Love, which was founded by his wife, the stylist and editor Katie Grand. The couple had been together since 1997 and happily lived together for a decade. In 2008, Grand stated in an interview with The Observer that Steve Mackeyhad no desire to get married, and she had no interest in having children. However, Steve Mackey later changed his mind, and in 2009, they tied the knot in New York State.