[1] Formed in 1989, the band has consistently included songwriting duo Linda Hopper as vocalist and Ruthie Morris on guitar.

Magnapop first achieved recognition in the Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg through the festival circuit and have remained popular in Europe throughout their career.

[2] In 1989, Ruthie Morris had recently moved to Atlanta from West Palm Beach, Florida[6]—where she played a few shows as the guitarist for The Pockets.

The musicians named themselves Homemade Sister after a line from the film Baby Doll and released their first single—"Rip the Wreck"/"Merry"—on Safety Net Records in 1990.

[9] At that event, Morris gave out two demo tapes—one to American rock journalist James Sullivan[12] and the other to Tom Engelshoven and John van Luyn of the Dutch music magazine Muziekkrant OOR.

The band was also featured on other various artist tribute albums, including "Ear" (a different recording from the one on Magnapop) for Delicacy & Nourishment – Lyrics by Ernest Noyes Brookings Vol.

The band asked Sugar bassist and fellow Athens musician David Barbe produce their major label debut album.

[21] The sessions would result in the album Hot Boxing, which was released by Play It Again Sam in Europe and Priority Records domestically on July 5, 1994.

The promotional EP Big Bright Cherry was released in 1994 and included three tracks from the Hot Boxing recording sessions as well as three self-produced songs.

Hopper explained "We had a hard time recording Hot Boxing, because our drummer had a lot of things in the way ... Nobody wants to hurt anyone, or to cut them out, but it was just like four adults getting a divorce, and their child is the band.

[27] The remaining trio recruited session drummer Josh Freese and engineers Sandy Solomon and Bernie Zwass to record a cover of Tom Waits' "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" at Plus Four Recordings Studios, in Sherman Oaks, California in June 1995 for the compilation album Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits.

Mould was unavailable, so the band relocated to Los Angeles[25] and worked with producer Geza X[28] at his home studio[29] in attempt to make a more "eclectic" album that would represent the diversity of their songwriting.

[32] In late 1996, Mulvaney left the group, citing problems of distance—Hopper and Morris had relocated permanently to Los Angeles—as well as a desire to focus on his family.

Boston native and former Queers bassist Greg Urbaitis replaced him after replying to an ad in The Recycler and the band continued to play live shows through 1997, including supporting Throwing Muses on their farewell tour.

[34] Hopper and Morris continued to play a few acoustic live shows as a duo into 1999, occasionally with accompaniment (such as Philadelphia bassist Billy Warburton and drummer Lance Crow)[35] and attempted to record an EP for record label Vital Cog with a drum machine as backing,[35] but ended up putting Magnapop on an indefinite hiatus.

The band officially re-formed in 2003 with bassist Scott Rowe and drummer Brian Fletcher to tour the European festival circuit and record an album.

By 2005, Fletcher had left the group, and drummer Chad Williams had been recruited to replace him on two weeks prior to the first show on the Mouthfeel tour that included an appearance at South by Southwest.

The band has continued to intermittently tour since the release of Chase Park and on September 13, 2011, Creative Loafing announced that Mulvaney had attempted to re-form the original line-up of Magnapop to perform a benefit concert for local independent music store Criminal Records.

[38] The benefit was later scheduled for October 15, and the band announced that they would be performing their self-titled debut album in its entirety,[39] along with some songs from Hot Boxing.

In September 2016, Magnapop announced a February 2017 tour of Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK,[47] accompanied by the album The Circle Is Round, released in 2019.

In 1993, Juliana Hatfield wrote "Ruthless" in honor of the band's guitarist[62] after the two had a conversation about Camille Paglia[63] while touring in 1992 ("We're all gushin', but I swear we really mean it, man/We're all sucking up to Ruthie.")