A lot's already been mentioned, far better than I could say. My memory's not so great and I was very young for most of the '80s, but I do remember a few things.
I was fortunate to grow up in a major media market. We had lots of channels to choose from (and we had cable - you had to get up and slide the cable box's channel selector by hand to get to the channel you wanted). And if you didn't pay for a premium channel (like Disney or HBO) they scrambled it, giving you occasional glimpses of what you were missing. Here's a picture I found online of a similar cable box:
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3375/3298454963_068a3b8b20.jpgThat was state of the art technology. Speaking of technology, cars looked like this:
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loginThat's a Ford Mustang, believe it or not (a far cry from what they were previously or what they've become in the years since). Convertibles had fallen out of favor in the '70s (the advent of air conditioning and the rumor of pending rollover crash testing put an end to American convertibles until 1982) so this car is equipped with removable roof panels known as T-tops (the Trans Ams in both
Smokey And The Bandit and
Knight Rider helped make T-tops popular). The Mustang hiding behind it even has a vinyl roof (red at that!), a very popular option on cars from the '60s through the '80s.
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loginAnd this is a station wagon. While still popular in Europe and Asia, the wagon has all but gone extinct in North America. Replaced by the first minivans (well, the first to be called such, the VW Bus, among others, had existed for years prior) that debuted in 1984. Up until then the full-size station wagon was the king of the suburbs. But they were the opposite of 'cool' and movies like
National Lampoon's Vacation certainly didn't help their image problem. The simulated wood side panels were meant to evoke the classic wood-bodied station wagons prior to the early '50s and were reserved for only the highest trim levels (in this case, the Ford Crown Victoria Country Squire). SUVs were just beginning their rise to popularity, and were most commonly purchased in Rust Belt states where snow was a legitimate concern or by people who actually took them off-road.
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loginAs mentioned by Sumire above, Japanese cars hadn't come to dominate the North American market yet. They had made tremendous gains in market share throughout the '70s thanks to offering economy cars, but they were trying hard to move upscale. This is a Toyota Supra, featuring another '80s styling hallmark, pop-up headlights. These have fallen out of favor for a number of reasons: more expensive than conventional lights, advancing technology (and the repeal of archaic headlight laws) has resulted in cars that can have both aerodynamics and functional headlights, and finally pedestrian safety laws preventing protrusions on the car.
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loginSpeaking of foreign (to the USA, anyway) auto manufacturers, there were more options available in the 1980s. France's Renault owned American Motors (AMC) until 1987 and Peugeot maintained a presence in the USA until 1991. Great Britain still had a domestic auto industry and Rover sold cars here under the name Sterling. Even Yugoslavia was sending cars here (the much-maligned Yugo). The first Korean cars were sold here in the mid '80s (my elementary school teacher got one of the first Hyundais sold in the USA - to say their quality was lacking is like saying water is wet... thankfully they're much better now).
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loginBill Elliott's 1987 Ford Thunderbird (this exact car) remains the all-time NASCAR speed record holder. NASCAR reduced the speeds due to safety issues arising from a 1987 race where Bobby Allison ended up tearing down the catch fence between the track and the grandstand when his car got airborne. Elliott dominated NASCAR for much of the '80s and won the 1988 Cup championship. His racecar also resembles the street version of the Ford Thunderbird (unlike today's purpose-built racers), which was a popular 'personal luxury coupe' (stylish full-size with only two doors and luxurious interiors & features), a type of car that is now completely extinct, though they were extremely popular from the late '50s into the early '90s.
One thing the music scene had that I didn't see mentioned is the era's focus on adult contemporary/easy listening. For example, Kool & The Gang's
Cherish and Christopher Cross'
Arthur's Theme aren't likely to be played on any radio station now, but were both huge hits in the '80s. But they're not 'classic rock' so they're forgotten now. If you're lucky you might hear an oldies station playing
Celebration or
Sailing by those same artists.
Speaking of '80s music, the song
We Built This City was innovative as radio stations were urged to make their own unique traffic report for the bridge of the song. Unsurprisingly, the most popular version was about the Golden Gate Bridge and this is the version played on the radio today. However, growing up in the New York metro area I vaguely remember a version that was about the George Washington Bridge. I've not been able to find a version of this available anywhere (not on YouTube and Google searches have yielded nothing except for confirmation that it exists and that I'm not delusional), so if anyone can help me reminisce I'd be grateful.
I also want to note that not only was
Astro Boy around before the '80s, so were
Speed Racer &
Kimba The White Lion. All three of these were quite successful on this side of the Pacific in the late '60s. So anime existed in the USA well before the '90s.
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That's a LOT if you ask me. Considering a cheeseburger happy meal is only $3.26 here you're better off getting an entire meal instead of spending $2 on just the toy. 
I don't know if anyone else's McDs does this but $2 for one toy as opposed to 3 toys for under $2 is a hella good deal. 
