Web development has become an essential element of doing business and maintaining a digital presence as we approach the modern tech industry. In fact, as technology continues to evolve, it is crucial to understand what programming languages are a must for web development. Beyond being used to create functional websites, these languages guarantee a great user experience, provide high performance and scalability across devices and platforms.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) still forms the Web development backbone. This is used to structure the content of the web and it simply cannot exist without structurally designing the layout of any webpage. HTML works alongside CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which determines how a page looks and presents itself. They are two who together form the elemental twigs of building and fabricating modern websites.

Another cornerstone of some days web development is JavaScript, used to add interactivity to what would usually be a static HTML and CSS file. It is responsible for dynamic content, that is, interactive forms; animations; updates, etc. in real time. To have good looking web applications that can respond to user input smoothly, JavaScript is a must. As one of the most dominant forces in modern web development — thanks to its vast ecosystem — comprising frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue.js — it offers everything needed to complete the project.

Programming languages like Python, PHP and Ruby have long been popular for development on server side. Frameworks like Django and Flask frequently use Python because it’s simple and can be very versatile. The only reason PHP is still in-tact is because of content management systems like WordPress. Ruby, most valued for Rails, is a prominent participant in web development in the field of developing robust web applications.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the last thing, which is needed to manage databases in web development. It enables the developers to actively work with databases, obtain data to web applications, and make sure that web applications can store as well as handle large amounts of data very efficiently. To become a full stack developer, one must know SQL as both the front end and back end need to work as a whole to deliver top notch web apps.

Conclusion
In conclusion, learning the fundamentals of programming languages are crucial for doing modern web development. The basis of building engaging, responsive websites is HTML, CSS, JavaScript, while server side like Python, PHP, Ruby back end functionality. SQL ensures an efficient data management between frontend and backend. Together these languages allow developers to create robust, scalable and user friendly web applications geared toward the ever changing tech industry. To thrive in this dynamic field, being proficient in these languages is key.