DO NOT JUDGE beatmania on it's one time American release. Pulllease.
It's the worst version of the game out there. You should start with something like DistorteD, Gold or DJTroopers.
Then go for all the awesome tracks (they're all awesome..)
Once you start to get better, go and check out bemaniasc.com
Maybe you dislike the game because of its difficulty. Plus it feels a lot more awesome to play using one of those controllers from DAO.