There seems to be a popular opinion on the internet (held, apparently, by both fans and critics) that K-On is nothing but moe fanservice. This is false, but it's an understandable misconception, especially after Season Two. This isn't to say that moe doesn't play a huge part in the series. KyoAni did the smart thing from the get-go, targeting two audiences: music fans and moe otaku. This is nothing new; it just makes sense from a business standpoint to target as wide an audience as possible.
However, somewhere between the first season and the second, KyoAni's approach to this changed. S1;Ep3 - Yui's studying for her exam; glances at her guitar case, shakes head and goes back to studying. Cut to her sitting on the bed strumming away. Anyone who has ever played guitar (if they didn't give it up after fifteen minutes) knows this is 100% accurate. But the gag still works for non-musicians as "hurr, Yui's a ditz"; both music geeks and moe geeks are satisfied. Similarly, almost every episode makes sure to balance the music/band and slice-of-life antics. (The only notable exceptions are Ep7 and Ep13.)
On the other hand, Season Two focuses a lot more on the slice-of-life side of the story. (See: Kyoto trip, Azusa's acid trip in EP13.) Which is fine -- the girls are sufficiently rounded characters that this works well. But it detracts from the multiple-audience appeal. As a musician, and someone who mainly likes the series for the music, it's a bit tedious. The Kyoto trip, for example, bored me, but the follow-up episode focusing on Azusa was fine, what with the jazz club practice and Azusa, Jun, and Ui's jam session. The opposite problem's here too: I doubt many non-guitarists really understood most of the jokes in Ep6.
Why the difference? I'm pretty sure there are a few different reasons.
First, Season One has a lot more content in much fewer episodes. This makes sense; until the anime aired, K-On was way below the radar (to be fair, a manga about music will inevitably be missing something.) So, KyoAni made a short season to cover the manga storyline to that point (two years in-universe). There's absolutely no room for filler when you're compressing a series. (And KyoAni is remarkably good at this -- probably learned from adapting Key's VNs.)
When the series was a hit, this left them with a problem; the girls have only one year of high school left, but to make as much of an impact with Season Two as they can, KyoAni wanted to go with a full 26 episode season. Twice the season length, half the content, it makes sense that there would be an increased focus on the slice-of-life part of the series.
The music aspect of the series is more difficult and expensive than slice-of-life. Animating the girls playing their instruments is pretty involved. The music must be written and recorded -- regardless of whether it's a full song or someone practicing acoustically. (See: the second training camp in Season One, where Yui and Azusa practice Fude Pen Boru Pen. Some sound engineer somewhere had to deal with a recording headache there.)
Finally, with the increased popularity, KyoAni wanted to cash in. There's no point overlooking it; merchandise is massive business. And moe sells. From a business standpoint, figurines and pillows and god-knows-what-else will have a lot more return on investment than, say, releasing a signature guitar. (Granted, there are some cheapo guitars knocking off the girl's instruments but cheapo guitars are usually shit as actual guitars (which the music otaku watching the show will know.))
The final bit of evidence is the music: purely looking at insert songs (ignoring B-sides, image songs, etc.) Season One has three inserts (Fuwa Fuwa Time, Koi wa Hotchkiss, Fude Pen Boru Pen) while Season Two has four (Pure Pure Heart, LOVE, Gohan, U&I, Tenshi). Two extra insert songs despite the season being twice as long.
My point, after wandering a bit: K-On is by no means purely a moe slice-of-life series. However, parts of Season Two are; and I think this is partly responsible for the misconception. (Amplified, of course, by trolls complaining about shows they don't watch.)
It will be interesting to see which route the Movie takes.
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