The Beloved are a British electronic music group best known for the singles "Sweet Harmony", "The Sun Rising", "Hello", "Your Love Takes Me Higher", and "Satellite".

Originally a post-punk/indie band formed in 1983, they underwent a change of direction in the late 1980s to a house/alternative dance sound and experienced chart success in the UK and elsewhere.

According to a commonly known account of the group's formation, Jon Marsh placed an advertisement in the music press in 1983, which read as follows:

"I am Jon Marsh, founder member of The Beloved. Should you too wish to do something gorgeous, meet me in exactly three years' time at exactly 11 a.m. in Diana's Diner, or site thereof, Covent Garden, London, WC2".

However, Marsh confirmed in 2017 that this was a story made up for a press release.

Marsh first met Steve Waddington when he joined the band Twelfth of August as an additional guitarist. Within a few months, Marsh suggested they leave and start their own band. Calling themselves The Journey Through in 1983, they recruited bass player Timothy Havard and began writing and rehearsing; occasionally playing live, with keyboard player Bill Anderson. Waddington was singer and principal songwriter. By early 1984 they were The Beloved; Waddington still the frontman, but Marsh singing on several songs and Havard and Marsh beginning to take over most of the songwriting. By the autumn Marsh was the lead singer, still drumming on demos and in rehearsal. He waited outside the BBC, Portland Place one night and gave a demo tape to John Peel. Within a fortnight they had been booked for a session. Marsh's school friend, Guy Gausden, had played drums with them at a couple of gigs and they persuaded him to join as a permanent member. Having barely rehearsed, and with two brand new songs out of four, they debuted as a four-piece on BBC Radio 1 on 8 January 1985.

A second Peel session followed in October 1985 and soon afterwards their first single, "A Hundred Words", was released in April 1986. A summation of this stage of their career can be found on a compilation album, Where It Is, which is a compilation of previously released material, consisting of singles and related B-sides, pressed onto one individual long playing work. The record includes all the early singles, "A Hundred Words", "This Means War", the double A-side "Surprise Me" / "Forever Dancing" and the EP "Happy Now", all released throughout 1986 and 1987, all making the top 30 in the UK Indie Chart, and all failing in the UK Singles Chart.

Havard left the band in July 1987. The remaining three members began work on a new album. However, due to a lack of money to produce the album, it was shelved and Gausden departed in late 1987. Back down to a duo of Marsh and Waddington only, The Beloved began to embrace a dance sound more wholeheartedly after taking influence from freestyle and hip-hop music in "Forever Dancing". Now signed to WEA (now Warner Music Group), the single "Loving Feeling" was released in October 1988. It did not fare very well in the charts but its B-side "Acid Love" garnered moderate success in clubs. The single "Your Love Takes Me Higher" was released in January 1989 and did not chart but was more successful than "Loving Feeling", peaking at number 91 on the UK Singles Chart. In October of the same year the single "The Sun Rising" was released and became a club favourite, crossing over to the UK top 40, peaking at number 26 in November 1989.