The music video for "Can't Be Tamed"' was directed by Robert Hales. The video casts Cyrus as an exotic songbird breaking out of its cage, symbolizing Cyrus as a singer breaking out of her good-girl image. In cut-scenes, Cyrus wears a corset made of 2,400 silver metal pieces and numerous peacock feathers. It was designed by The Blonds, debuted during their fall 2010 fashion show, and cost $25,000.
The video commences with formally dressed spectators entering a museum as a curator introduces "a creature so rare it was believed to be extinct. In captivity for the first time, the rarest creature on Earth, Avis Cyrus". White curtains are pulled down to reveal Cyrus, dressed in a black leotard and expansive black CGI wings, asleep in a giant bird nest locked inside a giant cage. Cyrus rises and approaches the audience, but a camera flash startles her and causes her to shield her face with her wings. The music starts, and Cyrus unveils herself again and joins a large group of feathered dancers. As Cyrus sings, she and the dancers escape the cage and prowl the museum, shattering museum exhibits as they pass them. They perform provocative dances both inside the cage and in darkened museum halls. Cut-scenes feature Cyrus lying down, dressed in a silver corset attached to a bed of peacock feathers, or writhing alone in her nest in the cage.[46] The video ends with Cyrus back in her cage and the museum empty and trashed.