I think it was a natural progression for a lot of them. Husker Du never especially liked punk. They made "Land Speed Record" to impress Black Flag and get signed to SST. they made "weathered statues" when Public Image Ltd started to appeal to college kids. Pretty much as soon as they found an audience they started tinkering and expanding into different things. Similarily, The Replacements were always at their core a rock and roll band, they never fit in with hardcore or the english punk stuff, even when they were fans of it early on. Similarly, the Minutemen have always said they were punk by default, because they were too weird to be anything else. but they mainly were influenced by CCR and jazz. J Mascis was only VERY briefly into hardcore when he was a kid. I do think for these musicians punk felt restrictive, but it's because they were never that into it to begin with. You can look at a band like Fugazi, or someone like Jello Biafra, and they've kept on doing punk but in different ways, because punk is really important to them. I have no problem with musicians outgrowing punk if it's what's best for them, it makes a lot of them better even. but my theory is that if someone outgrows punk in that way, they were never seriously into it to begin with. And that isn't good or bad. In fact, a lot of people who take "punk" seriously make some of the most boring music ever written or played.

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