Though the effectiveness of quality backlinks to your site has not changed, the methods in which you get them has.
Successful digital marketers incorporate backlink strategies into their overall marketing strategy, building links on sites not only with high authority, but also meaning to their personas.
Contrary to old practices, it's not effective to spam other blogs with comments linking to your site anymore (no one ever liked this anyway). You need quality content, with something valuable to say in order to earn your backlink.